** [[StatingTheSimpleSolution Or, you know, when he was clarifying the incorrect spelling, he could have just been spelling the name out loud. There's no indication that he isn't doing that.]] Besides, mistaking the spelling of Maggey's name due to having only heard it out loud is a plot point in the case, if I may add, just FYI, since a lot of people seem to forget this.

*** There's a lot of ways that you could prove someone to be an assassin's client, and this is really oversimplifying the original point being made.The point is that surely rendering all the lack of evidence & alibi that his client has as meaningless actually does more harm them good? The police are not going to just lay down and give in when they find his calling card, they're going to at least investigate into the possibility. De Killer is essentially providing evidence to the police that the guy they were originally discounting because they have a rock solid alibi & no evidence connecting them to the scene actually can be involved after all, and pushing them into investigating into that person further. Whether he leaves the card or not his client isn't gonna get involved, and there won't be any proof at the scene linking them to the crime, so the entire issue of avoiding the police linking the client directly to the crime is a moot point.

*** [[spoiler:The DL-6 case showed that]] the InsanityDefense ''is'' a thing in the Ace Attorney world, despite TheOtherWiki [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insanity_defense#Scottish_law only citing a handful of Civil Law countries that recognize it]], and then not as a ''defense'' but rather as a ''mitigation''.[[note]]Though if this region is like Scandinavia, that mitigation would eventually let Maya go free but forbid her from doing any further channeling.[[/note]] My only question is why did Franziska not offer ''that'' angle? Was she presenting a FalseDichotomy that lesser attorneys would have fallen victim to?[[note]]If so, that probably suggests that even ''she'' felt that the I.D. had merit, and so excluded it from the list of her options.[[/note]]

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*** [[spoiler:The DL-6 case showed that]] the InsanityDefense ''is'' a thing in the Ace Attorney world, despite TheOtherWiki Wiki/TheOtherWiki [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insanity_defense#Scottish_law only citing a handful of Civil Law countries that recognize it]], and then not as a ''defense'' but rather as a ''mitigation''.[[note]]Though if this region is like Scandinavia, that mitigation would eventually let Maya go free but forbid her from doing any further channeling.[[/note]] My only question is why did Franziska not offer ''that'' angle? Was she presenting a FalseDichotomy that lesser attorneys would have fallen victim to?[[note]]If so, that probably suggests that even ''she'' felt that the I.D. had merit, and so excluded it from the list of her options.[[/note]]

****OBJECTION! When trying to prove to Cody that you are in fact a fan of the Steel Samurai, you have the option of choosing "Will Powers' Acting", to which Cody replies that you must be a hardcore fan. This implies his knowledge of Will Powers, and his work on the show as the Steel Samurai.

* I know Phoenix isn't the nicest guy in the game, and I know Gumshoe can annoy him somewhat, but what was his problem during Gumshoe's introduction in ''Trials & Tribulations''? In 2-4, [[spoiler: Gumshoe was a big help in gathering evidence to help find Maya]]. How does Phoenix introduce him in 3-2? "Oh no! Not him again!" What the hell?** I can really understand Phoenix in this regard. Gumshoe, while adorable and a rather nice person, is usually trying to gather evidence against your client, witholds information and isn't all that bright. It got better over the games, as Gumshoe warmed up to Phoenix, but Nick would probably have prefered a more competent detective on the case.** This bugs me too. Gumshoe ''constantly'' proves himself to be a remarkable asset, whether it's providing useful exposition on the case and suspects, providing evidence, providing information regarding the evidence, etc. On two separate occasions, he risks life and limb to save Phoenix and Maya from mobsters, allowing them to escape with vital evidence. He supplies tools like the metal detector that [[spoiler: was ultimately Von Karma's undoing]]. He even risks (and loses) his badge to get Phoenix the evidence that ultimately puts away [[spoiler: Damon Gant]]. Gumshoe is an extremely valuable asset, without whom Phoenix would not have been able to win a ''lot'' of his cases, and yet everyone in the game, Phoenix included, treats Gumshoe as a worthless joke who can't do anything right. What the hell?*** Valuable != competent or a joy to work with. If Phoenix was really hard up for clues and Gumshoe's on the scene, Fuck Yeah! I know that guy! Let's go pester him until he spills confidential info! But, just showing up in his day-to-day life, maybe he's not the most enjoyable or useful person on Earth. Just like how Phoenix still thinks of Larry as a friend through the end of game 3, but we all totally get why he's not a welcome surprise when [[spoiler:we see him at the temple]].* When Larry arrives in 3-2, Phoenix says he has known Larry for 25. Is this a typo? Or was it meant to be interpretted as, "I've known him my whole life?" It's just strange, as Phoenix had never mentioned knowing Larry before the Classroom Trial. (Then again, I guess maybe they knew each other through their parents or something, but saying they had known each other since they were infants would be strange.)** It was probably just supposed to mean "We've known each other for a really long time." Also, while it's unlikely they met each other as infants, they ''did'' go to the same school, so it's possible that they saw each other around school a lot before actually becoming friends.

* In case 2-4, what was with Adrian wanting to burn the suicide note from Celeste? She thought the note was real, so why would Adrian think she was bringing justice to her mentor by getting rid of the one thing Celeste tried to leave behind?** The note was a forgery created by Juan that he would use to ruin Matt for good. Adrian wanted to destroy it to stop Celeste's good person from being used anymore in their ugly rivalry (especially considering that their feud was what led Celeste to kill herself). Whether it was a real or fake didn't matter to her.*** That doesn't hold up. Remember that[[spoiler: Adrian wanted to see Matt and Juan get what was coming to them. By showing the note, she would have brought them to justice.]] I might be wrong though, I really have to replay 2-4. *** I haven't played it in a while either, but I ''think'' that's wrong. [[spoiler: IIRC, Phoenix (or Edgeworth), argues that Adrian was not the recipient of the bear because the note was still in it, and she would've burned it or something had she got her hands on it. In other words, the OP is probably right; she just wanted Celeste to be remembered for who she was, not her role in Matt and Juan's twisted games. You could argue that that was wrong of her, but it's not that illogical]].** According to the discussion between Phoenix and Adrian at the Detention Center, Adrian came to the Gatewater hotel [[spoiler: merely to burn the note.]] However, that all changed when she came across the crime scene. [[spoiler: When she realized what happened and that she could not find the bear, the idea of revenge crossed her mind and she framed Matt for the murder.]]

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[[AC:Case 2-1]]* In case 2-4, what was with Adrian wanting to burn the suicide note from Celeste? She thought the note was real, so why would Adrian think she was bringing justice to her mentor by getting rid of the one thing Celeste tried to leave behind?** The note was a forgery created by Juan Case 2-1: How does everyone know how Phoenix is [[spoiler: spelling Maggey's name, when he's just speaking? He says that the writing says "Maggie, but the defendant spells her name Maggey", without saying "with a Y", or anything.]]** PsmithPsyndrome. Alternatively, he would use to ruin Matt for good. Adrian wanted to destroy it to stop Celeste's good person from being used anymore in their ugly rivalry (especially considering that their feud was what led Celeste to kill herself). Whether it was actually is saying 'with a real or fake didn't matter to her.*** That y' but the game doesn't hold up. Remember that[[spoiler: Adrian wanted show it like that because the makers know we can tell the difference.** The prosecutors seem to be aware of the "health" meter and can manipulate it, so who's to say they can't see Matt the text boxes?** RuleOfPerception and Juan get what was coming to them. By showing LawOfConservationOfDetail. Because the note, she would have brought them player can see how Phoenix is spelling the names, there's no need to justice.]] I might be wrong though, I really have add extra dialogue explaining the difference. Also, it's kinda funny this way.*** Also, in the original Japanese Version of the game, Naruhodo/Phoenix says something to replay 2-4.the effect of "I am not talking about the Katakana-spelling, Prosecutor Auchi(Payne), I'm talking about the Kanji", directly refering to the spelling issues that arouse with Maggey's name (Suzuki Mako) in the japanese version. Apparently, the "Suzu" in her name is spelt with an rather unusual Kanji there.*** I haven't played it * In the first case (2-1) the victim broke his neck in a while either, but I ''think'' that's wrong. [[spoiler: IIRC, Phoenix (or Edgeworth), argues the fall. Why doesn't anyone tell the court that Adrian breaking your neck like that, falling a few meters either kills or paralyses you? Then it would be obvious that the accused was Not Guilty!** I always hear this and I always respond with the same thing: Breaking your neck does not mean your automatically paralyzed. The windpipe in your neck is what must break for this to happen and it IS possible to snap your neck without snapping the recipient of windpipe. In fact I am a doctor, and I have had a patients with snapped necks who have not only lived but also been able to talk, write and breath perfectly. Once again I AM A DOCTOR. I would not suggest trying to argue a medical issue with a doctor...*** Whoa now, slow down. That would be a perfectly legitimate thing to teach us, ''except that it's stated that it's the bear because fall that killed Dustin.'' While, yes, it is a bit of a stretch to say he would have been paralyzed, if the note neck snap was strong enough to kill him, it's easy to see why people would make that mistake. He still in it, supposedly died instantly either way, so the fact that everyone complains about the broken neck actually has less to do with him having a broken neck and she still writing, but more to do with the fact that he broke his neck and still wrote ''despite this contradicting other things stated in the case.''* Case 2-1, as stated up higher about the fall breaking the neck and killing instead of merely paralyzing. If the victim died instantly from the fall, he could not have written the defendant's name. And even if he had survived, he would've burned been paralyzed and either ''absolutely incapable'' of moving his arm or capable of moving it or something had she got her hands on it. In other words, ''slightly'', but not capable of writing legibily. How the OP hell does this case even get started, considering this heavy contradiction to it?** Reminder that Payne is on this case, probably right; she the most useless prosecutor of the lot. He probably just wanted Celeste didn't notice.* In Case 2-1, after Dustin is killed, I have one big question. Why didn't Maggey react to be remembered for who she was, this, or even know it had happened? They were in the park at that time to give Richard his phone back, and Richard most likely wouldn't have overreacted seeing a police officer on his own. This means that Maggey would have been right at the scene of the crime, and not even noticed as her role in Matt and Juan's twisted games. You boyfriend was pushed to his death. How does that make sense?** They don't make it that clear, but it could argue be that Dustin and Maggey were separated at the point of the actual murder? They say that was wrong of her, but Richard saw Maggey with Dustin and freaked out about it, so it could be that Richard saw the two from a far, noticed they had a phone in their hands and were waiting around, put two and two together, then in order to not have Maggey as a witness, waited until the right time to strike. Then...I suppose it's not possible that illogical]].** According maybe Dustin walked away from Maggey for whatever reason, such as to go to use a public toilet, and it was at that point that Richard killed him. Dustin likely was the discussion between one who had the phone with him, if this is the case. Granted, this is all just hand-waving to contradictions more then actual explanations but...it's possible, at least.* What exactly was Richard Wellington trying to achieve by whacking Phoenix over the head with a fire extinguisher in 2-1? He probably wasn't trying to kill him because a fire extinguisher isn't exactly the best murder weapon and he didn't act too shocked to see Pheonix alive and well when he took the stand. So what was he thinking? Something along the lines of "I'm going to cause you temporary plot-convenient amnesia, mwahahahaha"?** Probably more along the lines of incapacitating the defense attorney who managed to take down two of the greatest prosecutors in the world. Amnesia might not have been his primary goal. Hospitalizing him or giving him a knock that makes it far too hard to concentrate and cause him to faint mid court were probably more likely goals. Either way he didn't really want Wright at the top of his game given his reputation.** Was he supposed to walk up to Phoenix and Adrian at just ask for his phone? He probably only wanted to knock him out for just long enough to take the Detention Center, Adrian came to phone. He took the Gatewater hotel [[spoiler: merely to burn the note.]] However, wrong phone, indicating that all changed when she came across the crime scene. [[spoiler: When she realized what happened and he took it in a hurry, indicating that she could not find he didnít expect the bear, fire extinguisher to keep him knocked out for long.** Maybe Wellington just felt in the idea of revenge crossed her mind mood. hitting Phoenix with a fire extinguisher. I bet he goes up to any sleeping person on any given day and she framed Matt for the murder.]]thinks to himself, "Hmm, I want to give a good smack to this person with a fire extinguisher."

* In Turnabout Big Top, why does the killer [[spoiler: say he deliberately framed Max? Except for the lack of footprints, the evidence against Max resulted from chance events Acro couldn't have foreseen. It would have made more sense for him to claim "I had no intention of framing Max. But when the police formed the wrong conclusion, I decided to go along with them."]]** The implication here is that [[spoiler: Acro intended to kill someone without being blamed for it. So he had to frame someone. He first of all didn't think there would be any witnesses. But, just in case, he used the bust of Max to draw suspicion away from himself, hoping that if anyone saw anything in the dark, they would think it was Max, and wouldn't see the rope. And that was actually born out: none of the witnesses (like Moe) even saw a rope...they just saw Max flying! He didn't necessarily intend to frame anyone: he hoped he would get the job done without witnesses, but he covered his tracks in case there WERE witnesses. The cape landing on the bust was just fortunate happenstance.]]*** [[spoiler: FridgeBrilliance: Even if Moe had seen the rope, it would ''still'' point to Max, as Moe knows very well that Max uses cables to fly.]]** [[spoiler: I thought that Acro's plot was a result of his discovery of the bust in his room, not the other way around.]]** [[spoiler: Acro did not originally intend to kill without being blamed. All his plot was to get Regina into the place where he could kill her, without caring to hide his identity as the killer. It was entirely a coincidence that Mr. Berry happened to wear Max's costume to the crime scene and the coat happened to hang onto the bust, incriminating Max. Acro did not plan this to happen (and he really couldn't). Though he did say he deliberately framed Max, I took that to mean he framed Max after realizing that other people were suspecting Max instead of him.]]*** This explanation seems to be the most likely. [[spoiler:There's really no way that Acro could've planned to frame Max from the start, so "I blamed Max" could very plausibly just mean "I decided to just roll with that after the fact," since it basically amounts to the same thing.]]* One thing I do not get is at the end of ''Justice For All'', when you give Edgeworth Franziska's whip and you get the extra scene for it, [[spoiler: why does Franziska begin to cry before leaving from the airport? Is she that upset that she brought shame to herself for failing to get revenge on Edgeworth?]]** Franzy is a very proud girl, just like her father. She repeatedly states that "a von Karma is perfect", so becoming emotional about a failure, any failure, seems appropriate. Plus, it may have been the writers just wanting to humanize her character.*** Franziska also seems to realize that what Edgeworth says, that being a prosecutor isn't about a perfect record but about justice for all (no pun intended), and that's something she needs to learn. It isn't about personal records or anything like that, it's about doing what's right. When she realizes that he was only able to "beat" Phoenix in court by employing those human characteristics that she has shunned, and that her entire philosophy of perfection is wrong, well...it's enough to make anyone break down.*** And there's also the fact that Phoenix had just willingly accepted his first defeat in court because it is the just outcome he wants, and can have now that Maya's safe.*** Edgeworth is essentially telling her that she doesn't need to be perfect anymore. Considering that her father had drilled this ideal of "perfection" into her head her whole life, and he's heavily implied to have gotten the death sentence, she's probably really focusing on living up to her father's expectations at this point as a way of upholding his legacy. She's being told, maybe for the first time in her life, that she doesn't need to be perfect to be a good prosecutor. * ''Justice For All'', Case 3: It's established early on in the chapter that Max Galactica's flying act is well known. Even the public knows about it. Yet when [[spoiler: Moe went to testify, Franziska told him to leave out the part where he saw the murderer "fly away" just because it "wasn't funny". Seeing as Max is the only suspect who is well known for their flying ability, wouldn't it have been better if they had left that part of Moe's testimony in? Surely she would have heard about Max's act either from the public or when she was going over the crime scene herself.]]** If he had brought it up, it was possible that the Judge would have focused on that as his means of identification. But Phoenix could very easily have pointed out that [[spoiler:Max doesn't really fly, it's all smoke and mirrors, and there's no reason to pretend otherwise. Meaning that "It was clearly Max because Max can fly" just results in her losing the case.]]* If Engarde really didn't [[spoiler: trust De Killer at all]], why did he think that [[spoiler: he could leave the blackmail tape with him without him watching it]]?** Engarde learned that [[spoiler: De Killer]] always places trust in his clients and he will do what his clients wants without question because that is the basis of trust. Engarde knew he could [[spoiler: catch him on tape and it would never be watched by anyone other than Engarde himself]].** But the reason Matt did that in the first place was because, in his own words [[spoiler: 'assassins aren't above blackmail']]. And if they're not above [[spoiler: blackmail]], why would they be above [[spoiler: watching a tape they were told not to?]]*** Let's be fair here; Engarde really didn't HAVE A CHOICE. If the tape had been found [[spoiler: at Engarde's mansion, of all places]], the trial would've ended much faster; [[spoiler: a full recording of the chain of events surrounding the murder]] tends to do that, or at least makes you look ridiculously incompetent for [[spoiler: housing an assassin in your mansion, regardless of whether or not he's working for you]]! The best he could do was [[spoiler: entrust De Killer with it]] because nobody else had access to it; literally, either he had to trust that [[spoiler: De Killer wouldn't watch the tape]] or else [[spoiler: leave it behind for the prosecution to use at the trial]]. *** Engarde would have been boned either way; even if he'd managed to [[spoiler: get away scot free at the trial]], the instant he tried to [[spoiler: blackmail De Killer with the tape, De Killer would have just come right back around and killed him instead for breaking their contract]]. There is no plausible way this could have gone well for him.*** You have to understand though that Engarde was hoping that [[spoiler: De Killer would kill Juan, and no evidence would be left behind besides the card. He had no idea that Adrian would come in, try to frame him, thus getting him accused and putting him on trial and into this mess. In other words, in his perfect world, he wouldn't even need to have hidden that tape because there would be no trial to discover this evidence and thus no reason to hide it.]] *** He still would have [[spoiler:been screwed over even if there wasn't a trial. He was apparently ''planning on'' blackmailing De Killer with the tape which still would have gotten him killed for breaking the contract]].*** And if De Killer targets Matt, the [[spoiler: videotape with De Killer's face recorded on it would become public. Matt would be a pretty bad blackmailer if he didn't have a way to make the tape public even if De Killer managed to kill him.]]*** That said, law enforcement had been having an exceptionally difficult time trying to capture de Killer, and didn't seem to have much more luck even after Edgeworth met him face-to-face in Prosecutor's Path. It seems all [[spoiler: Engarde]] really did was sign his own death warrant due to his lack of trust and faith.

* And don't get me started on 2-3, and how contrived all that was... [[spoiler: The murder weapon just happened to be a full-sized bust of one of their group, which is a very normal object for someone to have, even as an award. The victim just happened to be wearing both the hat and cape of that same person. And then somehow that cape magically gets caught on the statue, because apparently it was only being held onto the man's shoulders by magic or something - my mind tries to make the trick make sense, and it still seems nearly impossible. What are the odds of all this happening? Honestly?]]** The sheer ''impossibility'' of the entire thing is lampshaded repeatedly, but, you know, ''that's what happened''. It may be a one in a million chance, but that's the chance that happened.** [[spoiler: It was clearly implied by Acro that all of these events were coincidental and he did not in anyway plan them ahead. His original intention was just to kill Regina by the bust, and probably turned himself in if someone saw the murder. If we ignore the coincidences then Acro's plan was pretty logical.]]*** Well, technically speaking, [[spoiler: he just wanted to kill Regina, the bust was just a convenient item to use]].** [[spoiler: Berry dressed up as Max in order to not be recognized as he went; as a result, Ben (and Trilo) saw Max's clothing but also saw Berry's face, which is why, despite his grudge against Max, said "good evening" to Berry anyways. Also, there were probably at least five things in Acro's room that he could have used as a murder weapon (that trombone looked pretty heavy), but he chose the bust instead because it suited his need for a small yet heavy object. Acro couldn't see out of the window properly to know that a witness might see an object get pulled up (Moe), so he didn't take appropriate caution- it was an unlikely chance that the robe got caught onto the bust as it fell. So, in retrospect, the murder plot wasn't all that implausible, besides the robe getting caught onto the weapon, but, as stated before, Acro got damn lucky. At least, for a while.]]** Indeed, the very murder itself actually going through is highly unlikely. It is strongly implied that [[spoiler: Russell Berry knew when he saw Acro's "note" that is was from Acro and intended for Regina, and what the implication was.]] Instead of simply [[spoiler: accepting death in place of Regina,]] why didn't he [[spoiler: go and confront Acro with the note and talk Acro out of murdering his daughter? Acro loved Berry like a father and surely would have listened.]] Further tragedy could have been avoided for everyone, although of course then we wouldn't have a case at all. But it just requires even more suspension of disbelief from the get-go than is usual in the series. ** Wait, that's your problem with the case? Not the fact that [[spoiler: Acro somehow thought ''Regina'' would consider herself a murderer, and would pick up the box, rather than sit on it to wait for the note-sender]]? Because that's pretty obviously what would have happened if [[spoiler: Regina had done exactly as the note said]]. Did the culprit honestly think [[spoiler: she'd react any differently than she did, despite knowing her personality]]? If anything, that's the weirdest aspect of this entire case.* Case 2-4: [[spoiler: Shelley de Killer knows enough about Adrian Andrews to finger her as a plausible client (as opposed to someone really off-the-wall like Will Powers or Wendy Oldbag), but he doesn't know that she's female?]]** Considering the fact that [[spoiler: de Killer fully expects Phoenix to play along, he's not worried about the minor details. When Phoenix ''doesn't'' play along, de Killer points out that it's not exactly good for Maya, and Phoenix quickly backs up. In other words, de Killer expected Phoenix to agree that Adrian Andrews was his client because it would get Matt Engarde off the hook and set Maya free. He doesn't expect Phoenix to play a different game entirely.]]*** There's also the fact that he knows about the status of the trial. Probably from local news. He may just be aware that [[spoiler: Adrian]] came up, and used that name to stay consistent. ** I always assumed that Matt happened to mention "my manager, Adrian Andrews" in conversation or something. (Preferably the way it happened in [[http://community.livejournal.com/gyakuten_saiban/157453.html#cutid1 this fanfiction]], for RuleOfFunny.)* Case 2-1: How does everyone know how Phoenix is [[spoiler: spelling Maggey's name, when he's just speaking? He says that the writing says "Maggie, but the defendant spells her name Maggey", without saying "with a Y", or anything.]]** PsmithPsyndrome. Alternatively, he actually is saying 'with a y' but the game doesn't show it like that because the makers know we can tell the difference.** The prosecutors seem to be aware of the "health" meter and can manipulate it, so who's to say they can't see the text boxes?** RuleOfPerception and LawOfConservationOfDetail. Because the player can see how Phoenix is spelling the names, there's no need to add extra dialogue explaining the difference. Also, it's kinda funny this way.*** Also, in the original Japanese Version of the game, Naruhodo/Phoenix says something to the effect of "I am not talking about the Katakana-spelling, Prosecutor Auchi(Payne), I'm talking about the Kanji", directly refering to the spelling issues that arouse with Maggey's name (Suzuki Mako) in the japanese version. Apparently, the "Suzu" in her name is spelt with an rather unusual Kanji there.

* In that Wacky Ol' Circus case in the second game, [[spoiler:you are asked to present the evidence that is mentioned in the note written by Acro (It roughly says, "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SIX MONTHS AGO, I HAVE EBBIDENCE"). The evidence you are supposed to provide is not the bloody, pepper-covered scarf, but a pepper shaker. Did I miss something?]]** Most likely. [[spoiler:Acro put the evidence in the large trunk, right? When the cops opened the trunk, there was a pepper shaker inside. Thus, that's the "evidence" Acro provided, despite more obvious evidence having been made available.]]** It was most likely intentional. [[spoiler:If the cops would have found the scarf, they would most likely ask around for its significance. Upon finding about Bat's incident, the cops would, of course, look into Acro. Since there would be a motive for murder (even though the motive was for Regina, among other things), this would implicate Acro, and thus wanting to not cast suspicion on himself, he used the pepper shaker. Besides, its a rather okay representation for Bat's accident.]]

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* In that Wacky Ol' Circus case *** And, as a further step in clarity, in the second game, [[spoiler:you are asked to present American, it's specifically a ''British'' Sports Car: The Brits drive on the evidence that is mentioned in left, like the note written by Acro (It roughly says, "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SIX MONTHS AGO, I HAVE EBBIDENCE"). Japnese. The evidence you are supposed to provide is not other Europeans, those on the bloody, pepper-covered scarf, but a pepper shaker. Did I miss something?]]** Most likely. [[spoiler:Acro put continent, drive on the evidence in right, similar to the large trunk, right? When Americans. All the cops opened the trunk, there was a pepper shaker inside. Thus, that's the "evidence" Acro provided, despite more obvious evidence having been made available.]]** It was most likely intentional. [[spoiler:If the cops dub would have found need to do is flip the scarf, they would most likely ask around image.[[note]]Though it may constitute a Headscratcher of its own for its significance. Upon finding about Bat's incident, the cops would, of course, look into Acro. Since there would be a motive for murder (even though the motive was for Regina, among other things), this would implicate Acro, and thus wanting to not cast suspicion on himself, he used the pepper shaker. Besides, its a rather okay representation for Bat's accident.]]Brits...[[/note]]

* Something that bugged me about case 2-4 is that de Killer said [[spoiler:when he delivered the bear puzzle to his client, they were wearing the Nickel Samurai costume]], and the way you prove that [[spoiler:the person in the costume couldn't have been Adrian is by presenting the bear puzzle or the suicide note, because Adrian knew how to solve the puzzle and would've taken the note out and burned it, but the note was still in the bear.]] But, if I remember right, [[spoiler:de Killer said he delivered the puzzle immediately after killing Juan. Adrian didn't have access to the Nickel Samurai costume she used until after she went to Juan's room, which was much later, and she couldn't have taken Matt's because he was wearing it while napping, and she would've woken him up if she tried to take the costume. Since Adrian using the costume is one of the biggest topics in the previous trial, it should've been a pretty obvious argument, and nearly impossible to counter. The puzzle and note argument could be countered by saying she simply didn't have enough time to take apart the bear and burn the note right then.]] Why does this never get pointed out?** I noticed that one myself. The gameplay answer is "There's no convenient way to provide evidence for an error in timing", unless Phoenix goes with a testimony counter or a "Show us on the map" attempt, but it's still something that should've come up. ** This is probably reaching a bit, but maybe Phoenix intentionally doesn't point it out because [[spoiler: it would end the trial and get Maya killed]]?* Figuring out that [[spoiler:the suicide note was still in the bear puzzle was the reason why Adrian couldn't have been De Killer's client]] was particularly hard for this Troper. She kept thinking it was the fact that [[spoiler:De Killer said his client was wearing the Nickel Samurai costume and Adrian didn't have the costume until after she went to Juan's room, and spent several minutes pondering why Lotta's photo, the Nickel Samurai glossy, and the guitar case were making her lose points]].

* Two (tangentially related) points from 2-4:** The first clue to [[spoiler:de Killer's location]] is courtesy of [[spoiler:Shoe the cat]]. However, how in the world is that connection made? It's not as though [[spoiler:Shoe is the only cat in the vicinity]], after all.** We see [[spoiler:de Killer]] twice before knowing [[spoiler:who he is]] - once [[spoiler:at the hotel at the start of the case (telling Maya she "has a phone call")]], and later [[spoiler:at Engarde's mansion]]. Given [[spoiler:his distinctive appearance - stitches and all]], how does Phoenix not make the connection? For that matter, since [[spoiler:de Killer spoke on both occasions (thought not necessarily to him directly in the first case)]], wouldn't Phoenix be able to figure out that [[spoiler:it's the same voice]]?** ...and a bit of possible FridgeBrilliance connecting the two: [[spoiler:de Killer is deliberately obfuscating his voice in his public appearances; the meowing reminded Phoenix of Shoe, which led him to realise the voices were similar enough to be the same person]]. It still sounds horribly flimsy, though. (Though something that flimsy would be very [[IncrediblyLamePun Wright]] indeed...)*** Well, they've just confirmed that [[spoiler:Matt Engarde]] is the killer, the butler looks a lot like [[spoiler:the guy who took Maya]], there is a cat at his house, and there is a cat at the place where [[spoiler:the assassin]] is hiding. All together, the logic is a lot less flimsy.** Well, when I played the game, I heard the cat and IMMEDIATELY felt a surge of excitement. I mean, Phoenix was hoping for a damn miracle, as he stated right before the call, and he just charged headfirst into the first thing he saw.* The dang translators. "The miracle never happen" I mean REALLY, Capcom, really?** They did it on purpose.** Hey, you can't catch em all. Typos, I mean.

* Shelly de Killer is a KarmaHoudini. This has been noted time and time again and should be a surprise to no one at this time. But it's disconcerting that he seems to be ''specifically written'' as if he was a KarmaHoudini. For one thing, his ethical code, in which he takes every precaution necessary to ensure that his clients are never implicated for his actions. [[spoiler:If my method of murder involved walking into a target's room, strangling him, placing a card and leaving, I'd be far less worried about making sure a guy who never went into the room is left alone, and more worried about making sure ''I'm'' not caught.]] Then there's the part where [[spoiler:he based his surveillance and kidnapping out of the defendant's house, somehow knowing that the police wouldn't bother to check there for clues or a motive related to the case until it was too late]]. And then there's the little bit where [[spoiler:he, while literally on the run from the authorities, broadcasts a radio signal to testify in the court case in which his client is being charged, and even then goes as far as to ''make death threats'' to people who rub him the wrong way. It's not like he has underworld connections who could make good on his words, either; he's just a skilled assassin]]. Simply put, none of his actions would be rational in the slightest, unless he was somehow certain that he was never going to be caught.** It gets worse. After so many cases devoted to the belief that no one is above the law and the truth will be revealed in the end, isn't the end of 2-4 a bit backwards? Basically, you get the culprit to plead guilty by... [[spoiler:telling him that another criminal, one who is never punished for his crimes, wants to kill him? As often as it uses an AssholeVictim, ''Ace Attorney'' isn't exactly the place to preach BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork]].* In the first case (2-1) the victim broke his neck in the fall. Why doesn't anyone tell the court that breaking your neck like that, falling a few meters either kills or paralyses you? Then it would be obvious that the accused was Not Guilty!** I always hear this and I always respond with the same thing: Breaking your neck does not mean your automatically paralyzed. The windpipe in your neck is what must break for this to happen and it IS possible to snap your neck without snapping the windpipe. In fact I am a doctor, and I have had a patients with snapped necks who have not only lived but also been able to talk, write and breath perfectly. Once again I AM A DOCTOR. I would not suggest trying to argue a medical issue with a doctor...*** Whoa now, slow down. That would be a perfectly legitimate thing to teach us, ''except that it's stated that it's the fall that killed Dustin.'' While, yes, it is a bit of a stretch to say he would have been paralyzed, if the neck snap was strong enough to kill him, it's easy to see why people would make that mistake. He still supposedly died instantly either way, so the fact that everyone complains about the broken neck actually has less to do with him having a broken neck and still writing, but more to do with the fact that he broke his neck and still wrote ''despite this contradicting other things stated in the case.''* There are a couple things that bother me about the last case (2-4). I know I'm nitpicking here and playing devil's advocate (in more than one way). But first of all, when the judge says that [[spoiler:Matt is not truly innocent or a good person because he caused a young woman to commit suicide]], it has just been revealed that [[spoiler:the suicide note was a forgery]]. So why doesn't Matt object to this? Maybe he doesn't really care because it doesn't affect him that much, but the judge has no solid proof that [[spoiler:Matt drove Celeste to suicide]].** Yes, the note we see was a forgery, but there are hints that Celeste wrote an actual suicide note of her own, and theoretically they could have Adrian testify about the circumstances leading up to Celeste's suicide also. My best guess as to why they don't actually go into this is that the case is finally coming to a close and the writers didn't want to stretch it out any more. Plus, as you said, Matt doesn't really care about Celeste one way or the other anyway.* Another thing that bugs me is the whole [[spoiler:presentation of the video tape to De Killer.]] There's no way he could see what is playing in the tape, and there's no reason [[spoiler:De Killer would believe Phoenix over his own client]]. Why doesn't he just [[spoiler:hang up the transceiver at that point, believing that Phoenix is a backstabber?]] I mean I guess he could hear it...I just thought it was odd to "show" someone something when they have no way of physically seeing it.** I had a similar problem with that tape. When she brings it into court, Franziska admits that she has not watched it. The tape has no label or anything that tells us what might be on it, or if there even ''was'' anything on it. Nobody has the idea to grab a VCR and check the contents (which would render the tape useless or not even allowed to be added to the court record as possible evidence), not even [[spoiler: De Killer]] knows what is on it. We have ''no'' indication that this tape has [[spoiler: De Killer murdering Juan]] on it, or anything else for that matter. Heck, it could've been a random home-video of Engarde getting hit by a football in the groin. Basically, that tape could not be of any practical use in this trial.** Additionally, [[spoiler: Phoenix learned that Matt taped De Killer not because of the tape itself, but because of the timer on Matt's hidden cameras. The tape itself doesn't really add anything to the situation. Thus, if we accept that De Killer trusts Phoenix's statements, why couldn't Phoenix have convinced De Killer that Matt was a traitor much earlier by just presenting the camera?]]** De Killer knows that Matt specifically ordered him not to watch the tape, but merely to guard it. Perhaps he had become suspicious of Engarde, and Phoenix's claim confirmed it? Besides, De Killer thinks highly of Phoenix, and considers him an honorable man.

* In case 4, when Phoenix says to Edgeworth that [[spoiler: Maya was kidnapped]], why doesn't he mention the [[spoiler: kidnapper's]] name? He remembered the name long enough to tell it to Matt a few minutes after he first heard it. Did he really forget the only info he had about the [[spoiler: kidnapper]] by the next night? Given that [[spoiler: Edgeworth had just said he was looking for "Shelly De Killer,"]] it makes sense that Phoenix would mention that the [[spoiler: kidnapper]] said his name was [[spoiler: "De Killer."]]** Yeah, I think that name would have struck a nerve in him. Either way, Phoenix had better things to worry about, like a guilty conviction, so it probably just slipped his mind.* Why the heck does Phoenix take Pearl with him to Engarde's mansion when [[spoiler: they're storming the place looking for Shelly De Killer? Isn't looking for assassins and their hostages something that should be handled by the police without the involvement of 8-year olds]]? She could easily have been asked to stay at the Criminal Affairs Dept., which had people in it despite the late hour. ** I imagine Pearl insisted on going since [[spoiler:she was anxious to find Maya]] and Phoenix was probably in too much of a hurry to argue the point.* In case 4, how was the door between [[spoiler: Engarde's living room]] and the video room locked from both sides? You approach it from one side as Maya and it's locked. Later, you approach it from the other side as Phoenix and it's locked. I guess someone who was hiding illegal activity behind that door would come up with fancy ways of locking it, but there's no reason it should have been originally designed to lock in a way that would prevent people on Maya's side from opening it.** Maybe [[spoiler: Engarde]] had that lock installed so he could lock himself in that room with the only key to "focus on the script". It just happened to be a convenient place to [[spoiler: hide a hostage in]] during that case.*** A bit redundant to use it, considering the plan was to keep Maya in the wine cellar. Also, that would require de Killer to obtain the key, which requires us to speculate once again about how much [[spoiler:Engarde]] knew about the plan.* Why did de Killer leave a calling card with Maya? It doesn't help to use such an object to inform your victim who they're dealing with when you're already there in person, especially if they're unlikely to recognize the symbol. It shouldn't be there for the police to find when they recover her, because finding her there would throw a lot of suspicion on the place's owner, which he is deliberately trying to avoid. And, of course, it's counterproductive to give your hostage a SkeletonKeyCard.** Given how he originally threatened to kill Maya if Nick didn't end the trial in one day, it's possible that De Killer just left the card there ''in case'' Nick didn't do what he wanted him to do.** Given that it's a calling card and, presumably, De Killer has hundreds of them, it's possible he just dropped that one without noticing.

to:

[[AC:Case 2-3]]* In case 4, when Phoenix says to Edgeworth that Turnabout Big Top, why does the killer [[spoiler: Maya was kidnapped]], why doesn't say he mention deliberately framed Max? Except for the [[spoiler: kidnapper's]] name? He remembered lack of footprints, the name long enough to tell it to Matt a few minutes after he first heard it. Did he really forget the only info he had about the [[spoiler: kidnapper]] by the next night? Given that [[spoiler: Edgeworth had just said he was looking for "Shelly De Killer,"]] it makes evidence against Max resulted from chance events Acro couldn't have foreseen. It would have made more sense that Phoenix would mention that for him to claim "I had no intention of framing Max. But when the [[spoiler: kidnapper]] said his name was [[spoiler: "De Killer.police formed the wrong conclusion, I decided to go along with them."]]** Yeah, I The implication here is that [[spoiler: Acro intended to kill someone without being blamed for it. So he had to frame someone. He first of all didn't think that name there would have struck a nerve in him. Either way, Phoenix had better things to worry about, like a guilty conviction, so it probably be any witnesses. But, just slipped in case, he used the bust of Max to draw suspicion away from himself, hoping that if anyone saw anything in the dark, they would think it was Max, and wouldn't see the rope. And that was actually born out: none of the witnesses (like Moe) even saw a rope...they just saw Max flying! He didn't necessarily intend to frame anyone: he hoped he would get the job done without witnesses, but he covered his mind.* Why tracks in case there WERE witnesses. The cape landing on the heck does Phoenix take Pearl bust was just fortunate happenstance.]]*** [[spoiler: FridgeBrilliance: Even if Moe had seen the rope, it would ''still'' point to Max, as Moe knows very well that Max uses cables to fly.]]** [[spoiler: I thought that Acro's plot was a result of his discovery of the bust in his room, not the other way around.]]** [[spoiler: Acro did not originally intend to kill without being blamed. All his plot was to get Regina into the place where he could kill her, without caring to hide his identity as the killer. It was entirely a coincidence that Mr. Berry happened to wear Max's costume to the crime scene and the coat happened to hang onto the bust, incriminating Max. Acro did not plan this to happen (and he really couldn't). Though he did say he deliberately framed Max, I took that to mean he framed Max after realizing that other people were suspecting Max instead of him.]]*** This explanation seems to be the most likely. [[spoiler:There's really no way that Acro could've planned to frame Max from the start, so "I blamed Max" could very plausibly just mean "I decided to just roll with him that after the fact," since it basically amounts to Engarde's mansion the same thing.]]* ''Justice For All'', Case 3: It's established early on in the chapter that Max Galactica's flying act is well known. Even the public knows about it. Yet when [[spoiler: they're storming Moe went to testify, Franziska told him to leave out the place looking part where he saw the murderer "fly away" just because it "wasn't funny". Seeing as Max is the only suspect who is well known for Shelly De Killer? Isn't looking for assassins and their hostages something flying ability, wouldn't it have been better if they had left that should be handled by part of Moe's testimony in? Surely she would have heard about Max's act either from the police without public or when she was going over the involvement crime scene herself.]]** If he had brought it up, it was possible that the Judge would have focused on that as his means of 8-year olds]]? She identification. But Phoenix could very easily have been asked pointed out that [[spoiler:Max doesn't really fly, it's all smoke and mirrors, and there's no reason to stay at pretend otherwise. Meaning that "It was clearly Max because Max can fly" just results in her losing the Criminal Affairs Dept., case.]]* And don't get me started on 2-3, and how contrived all that was... [[spoiler: The murder weapon just happened to be a full-sized bust of one of their group, which had people is a very normal object for someone to have, even as an award. The victim just happened to be wearing both the hat and cape of that same person. And then somehow that cape magically gets caught on the statue, because apparently it was only being held onto the man's shoulders by magic or something - my mind tries to make the trick make sense, and it still seems nearly impossible. What are the odds of all this happening? Honestly?]]** The sheer ''impossibility'' of the entire thing is lampshaded repeatedly, but, you know, ''that's what happened''. It may be a one in it a million chance, but that's the chance that happened.** [[spoiler: It was clearly implied by Acro that all of these events were coincidental and he did not in anyway plan them ahead. His original intention was just to kill Regina by the bust, and probably turned himself in if someone saw the murder. If we ignore the coincidences then Acro's plan was pretty logical.]]*** Well, technically speaking, [[spoiler: he just wanted to kill Regina, the bust was just a convenient item to use]].** [[spoiler: Berry dressed up as Max in order to not be recognized as he went; as a result, Ben (and Trilo) saw Max's clothing but also saw Berry's face, which is why, despite his grudge against Max, said "good evening" to Berry anyways. Also, there were probably at least five things in Acro's room that he could have used as a murder weapon (that trombone looked pretty heavy), but he chose the late hour.bust instead because it suited his need for a small yet heavy object. Acro couldn't see out of the window properly to know that a witness might see an object get pulled up (Moe), so he didn't take appropriate caution- it was an unlikely chance that the robe got caught onto the bust as it fell. So, in retrospect, the murder plot wasn't all that implausible, besides the robe getting caught onto the weapon, but, as stated before, Acro got damn lucky. At least, for a while.]]** Indeed, the very murder itself actually going through is highly unlikely. It is strongly implied that [[spoiler: Russell Berry knew when he saw Acro's "note" that is was from Acro and intended for Regina, and what the implication was.]] Instead of simply [[spoiler: accepting death in place of Regina,]] why didn't he [[spoiler: go and confront Acro with the note and talk Acro out of murdering his daughter? Acro loved Berry like a father and surely would have listened.]] Further tragedy could have been avoided for everyone, although of course then we wouldn't have a case at all. But it just requires even more suspension of disbelief from the get-go than is usual in the series.** I imagine Pearl insisted on going since [[spoiler:she was anxious to find Maya]] and Phoenix was probably in too much of a hurry to argue Wait, that's your problem with the point.* In case 4, how was case? Not the door between fact that [[spoiler: Engarde's living room]] and the video room locked from both sides? You approach it from one side as Maya and it's locked. Later, you approach it from the other side as Phoenix and it's locked. I guess someone who was hiding illegal activity behind that door Acro somehow thought ''Regina'' would come up with fancy ways of locking it, but there's no reason it should have been originally designed to lock in consider herself a way that murderer, and would prevent people pick up the box, rather than sit on Maya's side from opening it.** Maybe it to wait for the note-sender]]? Because that's pretty obviously what would have happened if [[spoiler: Engarde]] Regina had that lock installed so he could lock himself in that room with done exactly as the only key to "focus on note said]]. Did the script". It just happened to be a convenient place to culprit honestly think [[spoiler: hide a hostage in]] during that she'd react any differently than she did, despite knowing her personality]]? If anything, that's the weirdest aspect of this entire case.*** A bit redundant to use it, considering the plan was to keep Maya * In that Wacky Ol' Circus case in the wine cellar. Also, second game, [[spoiler:you are asked to present the evidence that is mentioned in the note written by Acro (It roughly says, "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SIX MONTHS AGO, I HAVE EBBIDENCE"). The evidence you are supposed to provide is not the bloody, pepper-covered scarf, but a pepper shaker. Did I miss something?]]** Most likely. [[spoiler:Acro put the evidence in the large trunk, right? When the cops opened the trunk, there was a pepper shaker inside. Thus, that's the "evidence" Acro provided, despite more obvious evidence having been made available.]]** It was most likely intentional. [[spoiler:If the cops would require de Killer to obtain have found the key, which requires us to speculate once again about how much [[spoiler:Engarde]] knew about the plan.* Why did de Killer leave a calling card with Maya? It doesn't help to use such an object to inform your victim who they're dealing with when you're already there in person, especially if they're unlikely to recognize the symbol. It shouldn't be there for the police to find when scarf, they recover her, because would most likely ask around for its significance. Upon finding her about Bat's incident, the cops would, of course, look into Acro. Since there would throw be a lot of motive for murder (even though the motive was for Regina, among other things), this would implicate Acro, and thus wanting to not cast suspicion on himself, he used the place's owner, which he is deliberately trying to avoid. And, of course, it's counterproductive to give your hostage pepper shaker. Besides, its a SkeletonKeyCard.** Given how he originally threatened to kill Maya if Nick didn't end the trial in one day, it's possible that De Killer just left the card there ''in case'' Nick didn't do what he wanted him to do.** Given that it's a calling card and, presumably, De Killer has hundreds of them, it's possible he just dropped that one without noticing.rather okay representation for Bat's accident.]]

* In case 2-4, I'm kind of confused about something. During the second trial day, De Killer was going to reveal the name of his client. Phoenix had thought that he was going to reveal it to be [[spoiler:Engarde]], and was super worried about Maya at that point. But if De Killer was about to name [[spoiler:Engarde]] as the client, why should Phoenix be so worried? Why didn't he just think that De Killer would release Maya now that he "broke his contract with the client."** If he admitted the case would have been lost and Maya would be dead and De Killer wouldn't Betray without [[spoiler: Engarde recording the murder]]. Besides, having your client arrested wouldn't help your reputation.** OP is talking about when Phoenix ''thinks'' that De Killer is going to betray Engarde and worries what this means for Maya. And I seriously doubt Phoenix cares more about his reputation at this point. Probably (haven't played the case in a while) he was so worried because he didn't know if De Killer was ever planning to let Maya go in the first place. He was more banking on the police rescuing her; if De Killer admitted who his client was in court, that meant they had no more time to find her. Basically without knowing ''why'' De Killer was planning to "betray" his client, he didn't know whether or not he was still planning to kill Maya afterwards.* In 2-4, after it's revealed that de Killer committed the actual murder, the trial doesn't end. No, the rest of the trial is devoted to determining who hired him because ''that'' person is therefore guilty of murder by hiring him. With this in mind, [[spoiler:how was Engarde expecting to avoid suspicion by hiring a known assassin who routinely implicates himself using a calling card? Once that was established, not even an alibi would have helped him, and given their well-known rivalry and the knowledge of the planned post-award ceremony, Engarde would still have been at the top of the list of suspects.]]** Since Engarde seems to know that [[spoiler:Adrian also had a grudge against Juan for his role in Celeste's suicide]], it's likely that he could have tried to implicate [[spoiler:Adrian]] as De Killer's client [[spoiler:if it hadn't ended up happening anyway during the trial]].** Juan Corrida is a celebrity. There's any number of reasons why an assassin might be sent after a famous person, ranging from a rival upset he didn't get a role that Juan did, to a director trying to remove him from a project without having to pay him, to an obsessed fan angry because he didn't sign onto a sequel role, to another obsessed fan angry that because he got a role that the fan's favorite actor ''should'' have gotten, etc. etc. If [[spoiler: Engarde hadn't already been implicated in the murder, starting the chain of events that culminated in his conviction,]] then the list of plausible suspects for hiring the assassin would have been "everyone on the planet Earth", and short of finding De Killer and getting him to confess to who hired him, the true culprit of the case would go undiscovered forever.

* Case 2-1, as stated up higher about the fall breaking the neck and killing instead of merely paralyzing. If the victim died instantly from the fall, he could not have written the defendant's name. And even if he had survived, he would've been paralyzed and either ''absolutely incapable'' of moving his arm or capable of moving it ''slightly'', but not capable of writing legibily. How the hell does this case even get started, considering this heavy contradiction to it?** Reminder that Payne is on this case, probably the most useless prosecutor of the lot. He probably just didn't notice.* Case 2-4. If De Killer wants his client to be acquitted, why is he [[spoiler: threatening the defense attorney, rather than the prosecutor or the judge? They'd both be in a better position to guarantee the defendant's acquittal. The defense attorney is already on your side, man! It's his JOB to be on your side!]]** [[spoiler: Because without the defense attorney, his client has no defense. If Phoenix goes, "Yup, my client is guilty. Throw the book at him." then the case is closed, the client goes to jail, end of case. Furthermore, the defense attorney is the only one that the client has any control over; any prosecutor or judge can be assigned to the case, but the client chooses his own defense attorney. If he threatens the judge and the judge responds by stepping down and letting a different judge take the case, then that's game over.]]*** [[spoiler:If a defense attorney says "Yup, my client is guilty", then he will not last long as a defense attorney. At least not in a realistic universe, assuming no plea bargains.]]*** That doesn't really matter though, since it's made abundantly clear that Phoenix wouldn't [[spoiler:defend a guilty client if he knew they were guilty]]. Remember that Phoenix is very justice prone (VERY VERY justice prone), even if his career would be crapped on by doing so, he'd still plead guilty against his clients wishes. De Killer likely knew this and so made precautions by kidnapping Maya and using her to make Phoenix not sub-come to wanting justice to prevail. Presides this, there's also a few other things Phoenix could have done if he found out Matt was guilty: He could have done what Tigre did in case 3-3 and give a shit defense on purpose so Matt is found guilty. Like, he could have just stood there, and shouted out "OBJECTION!" for an hour. His reputation would have gone through the mud, sure, but Phoenix is obviously someone who puts justice over his own life or career. Hell, even if it meant the end to his career as a lawyer, he'd likely not care and drop Matt's case if he found out he was innocent. Phoenix was the one who'd be most likely to throw the spanner into [[spoiler:De Killer's and Matt's]] plan if he found out about Matt's guilty, and De Killer knew this.*** Also, keep in mind that Phoenix Wright, despite his relative lack of experience, is the BEST. He has taken down three of the toughest prosecutors in the country. There is a fair amount of evidence (at least to the in-universe public) that Phoenix can get ANYONE off the hook, no matter how good the prosecution's case is. Furthermore, Phoenix has beaten Franziska twice already and is the ONLY person to ever do so. From De Killer's point of view, Phoenix is capable of getting Engarde a Not Guilty while also exonerating him in the public eye, which having the prosecution throw the case wouldn't do. The only problem is Phoenix's personality, and kidnapping Maya takes care of that. Granted, it probably would have been better for Matt to hire Phoenix and to have only kidnapped Maya after Phoenix learned the truth and tried to drop the case, but De Killer wanted Phoenix extra... motivated, as it were.* Case 2-4. Even after [[spoiler: De Killer says Adrian is his client,]] your client will still be found guilty if you run out of health.** That's one of those contradictions that appears in pretty much every single case, unfortunately.* After the first day of 2-4's trial, you meet Edgeworth and discuss some of the case's issues with him. In the end, he gives you a letter to show to the police at the hotel that will give you permission to investigate, since it was closed off to everyone due to the murder investigation. This scenario raises a question. Given the many prosecutors in this series who are actively trying to ensure that the defense learns as little as possible about the case before the trial, why isn't that tactic used ''more'' often? Tell the public, including Phoenix, to not go anywhere near the crime scene, and if he does start snooping around, you can ''arrest him'' for it. Why is this a one-case thing?** Simple: in any other case, the attorney has the right to investigate. This is a special case, though- there was a special order employed and more police force and funds poured into it- because a notorious assassin-for-hire was involved.* In Case 2-1, after Dustin is killed, I have one big question. Why didn't Maggey react to this, or even know it had happened? They were in the park at that time to give Richard his phone back, and Richard most likely wouldn't have overreacted seeing a police officer on his own. This means that Maggey would have been right at the scene of the crime, and not even noticed as her boyfriend was pushed to his death. How does that make sense?** They don't make it that clear, but it could be that Dustin and Maggey were separated at the point of the actual murder? They say that Richard saw Maggey with Dustin and freaked out about it, so it could be that Richard saw the two from a far, noticed they had a phone in their hands and were waiting around, put two and two together, then in order to not have Maggey as a witness, waited until the right time to strike. Then...I suppose it's possible that maybe Dustin walked away from Maggey for whatever reason, such as to go to use a public toilet, and it was at that point that Richard killed him. Dustin likely was the one who had the phone with him, if this is the case. Granted, this is all just hand-waving to contradictions more then actual explanations but...it's possible, at least.

[[AC:Case 2-4]]* In case 2-4, what was with Adrian wanting to burn the suicide note from Celeste? She thought the note was real, so why would Adrian think she was bringing justice to her mentor by getting rid of the one thing Celeste tried to leave behind?** The note was a forgery created by Juan that he would use to ruin Matt for good. Adrian wanted to destroy it to stop Celeste's good person from being used anymore in their ugly rivalry (especially considering that their feud was what led Celeste to kill herself). Whether it was a real or fake didn't matter to her.*** That doesn't hold up. Remember that[[spoiler: Adrian wanted to see Matt and Juan get what was coming to them. By showing the note, she would have brought them to justice.]] I might be wrong though, I really have to replay 2-4. *** I haven't played it in a while either, but I ''think'' that's wrong. [[spoiler: IIRC, Phoenix (or Edgeworth), argues that Adrian was not the recipient of the bear because the note was still in it, and she would've burned it or something had she got her hands on it. In other words, the OP is probably right; she just wanted Celeste to be remembered for who she was, not her role in Matt and Juan's twisted games. You could argue that that was wrong of her, but it's not that illogical]].** According to the discussion between Phoenix and Adrian at the Detention Center, Adrian came to the Gatewater hotel [[spoiler: merely to burn the note.]] However, that all changed when she came across the crime scene. [[spoiler: When she realized what happened and that she could not find the bear, the idea of revenge crossed her mind and she framed Matt for the murder.]]* If Engarde really didn't [[spoiler: trust De Killer at all]], why did he think that [[spoiler: he could leave the blackmail tape with him without him watching it]]?** Engarde learned that [[spoiler: De Killer]] always places trust in his clients and he will do what his clients wants without question because that is the basis of trust. Engarde knew he could [[spoiler: catch him on tape and it would never be watched by anyone other than Engarde himself]].** But the reason Matt did that in the first place was because, in his own words [[spoiler: 'assassins aren't above blackmail']]. And if they're not above [[spoiler: blackmail]], why would they be above [[spoiler: watching a tape they were told not to?]]*** Let's be fair here; Engarde really didn't HAVE A CHOICE. If the tape had been found [[spoiler: at Engarde's mansion, of all places]], the trial would've ended much faster; [[spoiler: a full recording of the chain of events surrounding the murder]] tends to do that, or at least makes you look ridiculously incompetent for [[spoiler: housing an assassin in your mansion, regardless of whether or not he's working for you]]! The best he could do was [[spoiler: entrust De Killer with it]] because nobody else had access to it; literally, either he had to trust that [[spoiler: De Killer wouldn't watch the tape]] or else [[spoiler: leave it behind for the prosecution to use at the trial]]. *** Engarde would have been boned either way; even if he'd managed to [[spoiler: get away scot free at the trial]], the instant he tried to [[spoiler: blackmail De Killer with the tape, De Killer would have just come right back around and killed him instead for breaking their contract]]. There is no plausible way this could have gone well for him.*** You have to understand though that Engarde was hoping that [[spoiler: De Killer would kill Juan, and no evidence would be left behind besides the card. He had no idea that Adrian would come in, try to frame him, thus getting him accused and putting him on trial and into this mess. In other words, in his perfect world, he wouldn't even need to have hidden that tape because there would be no trial to discover this evidence and thus no reason to hide it.]] *** He still would have [[spoiler:been screwed over even if there wasn't a trial. He was apparently ''planning on'' blackmailing De Killer with the tape which still would have gotten him killed for breaking the contract]].*** And if De Killer targets Matt, the [[spoiler: videotape with De Killer's face recorded on it would become public. Matt would be a pretty bad blackmailer if he didn't have a way to make the tape public even if De Killer managed to kill him.]]*** That said, law enforcement had been having an exceptionally difficult time trying to capture de Killer, and didn't seem to have much more luck even after Edgeworth met him face-to-face in Prosecutor's Path. It seems all [[spoiler: Engarde]] really did was sign his own death warrant due to his lack of trust and faith.* Case 2-4: [[spoiler: Shelley de Killer knows enough about Adrian Andrews to finger her as a plausible client (as opposed to someone really off-the-wall like Will Powers or Wendy Oldbag), but he doesn't know that she's female?]]** Considering the fact that [[spoiler: de Killer fully expects Phoenix to play along, he's not worried about the minor details. When Phoenix ''doesn't'' play along, de Killer points out that it's not exactly good for Maya, and Phoenix quickly backs up. In other words, de Killer expected Phoenix to agree that Adrian Andrews was his client because it would get Matt Engarde off the hook and set Maya free. He doesn't expect Phoenix to play a different game entirely.]]*** There's also the fact that he knows about the status of the trial. Probably from local news. He may just be aware that [[spoiler: Adrian]] came up, and used that name to stay consistent. ** I always assumed that Matt happened to mention "my manager, Adrian Andrews" in conversation or something. (Preferably the way it happened in [[http://community.livejournal.com/gyakuten_saiban/157453.html#cutid1 this fanfiction]], for RuleOfFunny.)* Something that bugged me about case 2-4 is that de Killer said [[spoiler:when he delivered the bear puzzle to his client, they were wearing the Nickel Samurai costume]], and the way you prove that [[spoiler:the person in the costume couldn't have been Adrian is by presenting the bear puzzle or the suicide note, because Adrian knew how to solve the puzzle and would've taken the note out and burned it, but the note was still in the bear.]] But, if I remember right, [[spoiler:de Killer said he delivered the puzzle immediately after killing Juan. Adrian didn't have access to the Nickel Samurai costume she used until after she went to Juan's room, which was much later, and she couldn't have taken Matt's because he was wearing it while napping, and she would've woken him up if she tried to take the costume. Since Adrian using the costume is one of the biggest topics in the previous trial, it should've been a pretty obvious argument, and nearly impossible to counter. The puzzle and note argument could be countered by saying she simply didn't have enough time to take apart the bear and burn the note right then.]] Why does this never get pointed out?** I noticed that one myself. The gameplay answer is "There's no convenient way to provide evidence for an error in timing", unless Phoenix goes with a testimony counter or a "Show us on the map" attempt, but it's still something that should've come up. ** This is probably reaching a bit, but maybe Phoenix intentionally doesn't point it out because [[spoiler: it would end the trial and get Maya killed]]?* Figuring out that [[spoiler:the suicide note was still in the bear puzzle was the reason why Adrian couldn't have been De Killer's client]] was particularly hard for this Troper. She kept thinking it was the fact that [[spoiler:De Killer said his client was wearing the Nickel Samurai costume and Adrian didn't have the costume until after she went to Juan's room, and spent several minutes pondering why Lotta's photo, the Nickel Samurai glossy, and the guitar case were making her lose points]].* Two (tangentially related) points from 2-4:** The first clue to [[spoiler:de Killer's location]] is courtesy of [[spoiler:Shoe the cat]]. However, how in the world is that connection made? It's not as though [[spoiler:Shoe is the only cat in the vicinity]], after all.** We see [[spoiler:de Killer]] twice before knowing [[spoiler:who he is]] - once [[spoiler:at the hotel at the start of the case (telling Maya she "has a phone call")]], and later [[spoiler:at Engarde's mansion]]. Given [[spoiler:his distinctive appearance - stitches and all]], how does Phoenix not make the connection? For that matter, since [[spoiler:de Killer spoke on both occasions (thought not necessarily to him directly in the first case)]], wouldn't Phoenix be able to figure out that [[spoiler:it's the same voice]]?** ...and a bit of possible FridgeBrilliance connecting the two: [[spoiler:de Killer is deliberately obfuscating his voice in his public appearances; the meowing reminded Phoenix of Shoe, which led him to realise the voices were similar enough to be the same person]]. It still sounds horribly flimsy, though. (Though something that flimsy would be very [[IncrediblyLamePun Wright]] indeed...)*** Well, they've just confirmed that [[spoiler:Matt Engarde]] is the killer, the butler looks a lot like [[spoiler:the guy who took Maya]], there is a cat at his house, and there is a cat at the place where [[spoiler:the assassin]] is hiding. All together, the logic is a lot less flimsy.** Well, when I played the game, I heard the cat and IMMEDIATELY felt a surge of excitement. I mean, Phoenix was hoping for a damn miracle, as he stated right before the call, and he just charged headfirst into the first thing he saw.* The dang translators. "The miracle never happen" I mean REALLY, Capcom, really?** They did it on purpose.** Hey, you can't catch em all. Typos, I mean.* Shelly de Killer is a KarmaHoudini. This has been noted time and time again and should be a surprise to no one at this time. But it's disconcerting that he seems to be ''specifically written'' as if he was a KarmaHoudini. For one thing, his ethical code, in which he takes every precaution necessary to ensure that his clients are never implicated for his actions. [[spoiler:If my method of murder involved walking into a target's room, strangling him, placing a card and leaving, I'd be far less worried about making sure a guy who never went into the room is left alone, and more worried about making sure ''I'm'' not caught.]] Then there's the part where [[spoiler:he based his surveillance and kidnapping out of the defendant's house, somehow knowing that the police wouldn't bother to check there for clues or a motive related to the case until it was too late]]. And then there's the little bit where [[spoiler:he, while literally on the run from the authorities, broadcasts a radio signal to testify in the court case in which his client is being charged, and even then goes as far as to ''make death threats'' to people who rub him the wrong way. It's not like he has underworld connections who could make good on his words, either; he's just a skilled assassin]]. Simply put, none of his actions would be rational in the slightest, unless he was somehow certain that he was never going to be caught.** It gets worse. After so many cases devoted to the belief that no one is above the law and the truth will be revealed in the end, isn't the end of 2-4 a bit backwards? Basically, you get the culprit to plead guilty by... [[spoiler:telling him that another criminal, one who is never punished for his crimes, wants to kill him? As often as it uses an AssholeVictim, ''Ace Attorney'' isn't exactly the place to preach BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork]].* There are a couple things that bother me about the last case (2-4). I know I'm nitpicking here and playing devil's advocate (in more than one way). But first of all, when the judge says that [[spoiler:Matt is not truly innocent or a good person because he caused a young woman to commit suicide]], it has just been revealed that [[spoiler:the suicide note was a forgery]]. So why doesn't Matt object to this? Maybe he doesn't really care because it doesn't affect him that much, but the judge has no solid proof that [[spoiler:Matt drove Celeste to suicide]].** Yes, the note we see was a forgery, but there are hints that Celeste wrote an actual suicide note of her own, and theoretically they could have Adrian testify about the circumstances leading up to Celeste's suicide also. My best guess as to why they don't actually go into this is that the case is finally coming to a close and the writers didn't want to stretch it out any more. Plus, as you said, Matt doesn't really care about Celeste one way or the other anyway.* Another thing that bugs me is the whole [[spoiler:presentation of the video tape to De Killer.]] There's no way he could see what is playing in the tape, and there's no reason [[spoiler:De Killer would believe Phoenix over his own client]]. Why doesn't he just [[spoiler:hang up the transceiver at that point, believing that Phoenix is a backstabber?]] I mean I guess he could hear it...I just thought it was odd to "show" someone something when they have no way of physically seeing it.** I had a similar problem with that tape. When she brings it into court, Franziska admits that she has not watched it. The tape has no label or anything that tells us what might be on it, or if there even ''was'' anything on it. Nobody has the idea to grab a VCR and check the contents (which would render the tape useless or not even allowed to be added to the court record as possible evidence), not even [[spoiler: De Killer]] knows what is on it. We have ''no'' indication that this tape has [[spoiler: De Killer murdering Juan]] on it, or anything else for that matter. Heck, it could've been a random home-video of Engarde getting hit by a football in the groin. Basically, that tape could not be of any practical use in this trial.** Additionally, [[spoiler: Phoenix learned that Matt taped De Killer not because of the tape itself, but because of the timer on Matt's hidden cameras. The tape itself doesn't really add anything to the situation. Thus, if we accept that De Killer trusts Phoenix's statements, why couldn't Phoenix have convinced De Killer that Matt was a traitor much earlier by just presenting the camera?]]** De Killer knows that Matt specifically ordered him not to watch the tape, but merely to guard it. Perhaps he had become suspicious of Engarde, and Phoenix's claim confirmed it? Besides, De Killer thinks highly of Phoenix, and considers him an honorable man.* In case 4, when Phoenix says to Edgeworth that [[spoiler: Maya was kidnapped]], why doesn't he mention the [[spoiler: kidnapper's]] name? He remembered the name long enough to tell it to Matt a few minutes after he first heard it. Did he really forget the only info he had about the [[spoiler: kidnapper]] by the next night? Given that [[spoiler: Edgeworth had just said he was looking for "Shelly De Killer,"]] it makes sense that Phoenix would mention that the [[spoiler: kidnapper]] said his name was [[spoiler: "De Killer."]]** Yeah, I think that name would have struck a nerve in him. Either way, Phoenix had better things to worry about, like a guilty conviction, so it probably just slipped his mind.* Why the heck does Phoenix take Pearl with him to Engarde's mansion when [[spoiler: they're storming the place looking for Shelly De Killer? Isn't looking for assassins and their hostages something that should be handled by the police without the involvement of 8-year olds]]? She could easily have been asked to stay at the Criminal Affairs Dept., which had people in it despite the late hour. ** I imagine Pearl insisted on going since [[spoiler:she was anxious to find Maya]] and Phoenix was probably in too much of a hurry to argue the point.* In case 4, how was the door between [[spoiler: Engarde's living room]] and the video room locked from both sides? You approach it from one side as Maya and it's locked. Later, you approach it from the other side as Phoenix and it's locked. I guess someone who was hiding illegal activity behind that door would come up with fancy ways of locking it, but there's no reason it should have been originally designed to lock in a way that would prevent people on Maya's side from opening it.** Maybe [[spoiler: Engarde]] had that lock installed so he could lock himself in that room with the only key to "focus on the script". It just happened to be a convenient place to [[spoiler: hide a hostage in]] during that case.*** A bit redundant to use it, considering the plan was to keep Maya in the wine cellar. Also, that would require de Killer to obtain the key, which requires us to speculate once again about how much [[spoiler:Engarde]] knew about the plan.* Why did de Killer leave a calling card with Maya? It doesn't help to use such an object to inform your victim who they're dealing with when you're already there in person, especially if they're unlikely to recognize the symbol. It shouldn't be there for the police to find when they recover her, because finding her there would throw a lot of suspicion on the place's owner, which he is deliberately trying to avoid. And, of course, it's counterproductive to give your hostage a SkeletonKeyCard.** Given how he originally threatened to kill Maya if Nick didn't end the trial in one day, it's possible that De Killer just left the card there ''in case'' Nick didn't do what he wanted him to do.** Given that it's a calling card and, presumably, De Killer has hundreds of them, it's possible he just dropped that one without noticing.* In case 2-4, I'm kind of confused about something. During the second trial day, De Killer was going to reveal the name of his client. Phoenix had thought that he was going to reveal it to be [[spoiler:Engarde]], and was super worried about Maya at that point. But if De Killer was about to name [[spoiler:Engarde]] as the client, why should Phoenix be so worried? Why didn't he just think that De Killer would release Maya now that he "broke his contract with the client."** If he admitted the case would have been lost and Maya would be dead and De Killer wouldn't Betray without [[spoiler: Engarde recording the murder]]. Besides, having your client arrested wouldn't help your reputation.** OP is talking about when Phoenix ''thinks'' that De Killer is going to betray Engarde and worries what this means for Maya. And I seriously doubt Phoenix cares more about his reputation at this point. Probably (haven't played the case in a while) he was so worried because he didn't know if De Killer was ever planning to let Maya go in the first place. He was more banking on the police rescuing her; if De Killer admitted who his client was in court, that meant they had no more time to find her. Basically without knowing ''why'' De Killer was planning to "betray" his client, he didn't know whether or not he was still planning to kill Maya afterwards.* In 2-4, after it's revealed that de Killer committed the actual murder, the trial doesn't end. No, the rest of the trial is devoted to determining who hired him because ''that'' person is therefore guilty of murder by hiring him. With this in mind, [[spoiler:how was Engarde expecting to avoid suspicion by hiring a known assassin who routinely implicates himself using a calling card? Once that was established, not even an alibi would have helped him, and given their well-known rivalry and the knowledge of the planned post-award ceremony, Engarde would still have been at the top of the list of suspects.]]** Since Engarde seems to know that [[spoiler:Adrian also had a grudge against Juan for his role in Celeste's suicide]], it's likely that he could have tried to implicate [[spoiler:Adrian]] as De Killer's client [[spoiler:if it hadn't ended up happening anyway during the trial]].** Juan Corrida is a celebrity. There's any number of reasons why an assassin might be sent after a famous person, ranging from a rival upset he didn't get a role that Juan did, to a director trying to remove him from a project without having to pay him, to an obsessed fan angry because he didn't sign onto a sequel role, to another obsessed fan angry that because he got a role that the fan's favorite actor ''should'' have gotten, etc. etc. If [[spoiler: Engarde hadn't already been implicated in the murder, starting the chain of events that culminated in his conviction,]] then the list of plausible suspects for hiring the assassin would have been "everyone on the planet Earth", and short of finding De Killer and getting him to confess to who hired him, the true culprit of the case would go undiscovered forever.* Case 2-4. If De Killer wants his client to be acquitted, why is he [[spoiler: threatening the defense attorney, rather than the prosecutor or the judge? They'd both be in a better position to guarantee the defendant's acquittal. The defense attorney is already on your side, man! It's his JOB to be on your side!]]** [[spoiler: Because without the defense attorney, his client has no defense. If Phoenix goes, "Yup, my client is guilty. Throw the book at him." then the case is closed, the client goes to jail, end of case. Furthermore, the defense attorney is the only one that the client has any control over; any prosecutor or judge can be assigned to the case, but the client chooses his own defense attorney. If he threatens the judge and the judge responds by stepping down and letting a different judge take the case, then that's game over.]]*** [[spoiler:If a defense attorney says "Yup, my client is guilty", then he will not last long as a defense attorney. At least not in a realistic universe, assuming no plea bargains.]]*** That doesn't really matter though, since it's made abundantly clear that Phoenix wouldn't [[spoiler:defend a guilty client if he knew they were guilty]]. Remember that Phoenix is very justice prone (VERY VERY justice prone), even if his career would be crapped on by doing so, he'd still plead guilty against his clients wishes. De Killer likely knew this and so made precautions by kidnapping Maya and using her to make Phoenix not sub-come to wanting justice to prevail. Presides this, there's also a few other things Phoenix could have done if he found out Matt was guilty: He could have done what Tigre did in case 3-3 and give a shit defense on purpose so Matt is found guilty. Like, he could have just stood there, and shouted out "OBJECTION!" for an hour. His reputation would have gone through the mud, sure, but Phoenix is obviously someone who puts justice over his own life or career. Hell, even if it meant the end to his career as a lawyer, he'd likely not care and drop Matt's case if he found out he was innocent. Phoenix was the one who'd be most likely to throw the spanner into [[spoiler:De Killer's and Matt's]] plan if he found out about Matt's guilty, and De Killer knew this.*** Also, keep in mind that Phoenix Wright, despite his relative lack of experience, is the BEST. He has taken down three of the toughest prosecutors in the country. There is a fair amount of evidence (at least to the in-universe public) that Phoenix can get ANYONE off the hook, no matter how good the prosecution's case is. Furthermore, Phoenix has beaten Franziska twice already and is the ONLY person to ever do so. From De Killer's point of view, Phoenix is capable of getting Engarde a Not Guilty while also exonerating him in the public eye, which having the prosecution throw the case wouldn't do. The only problem is Phoenix's personality, and kidnapping Maya takes care of that. Granted, it probably would have been better for Matt to hire Phoenix and to have only kidnapped Maya after Phoenix learned the truth and tried to drop the case, but De Killer wanted Phoenix extra... motivated, as it were.* Case 2-4. Even after [[spoiler: De Killer says Adrian is his client,]] your client will still be found guilty if you run out of health.** That's one of those contradictions that appears in pretty much every single case, unfortunately.* After the first day of 2-4's trial, you meet Edgeworth and discuss some of the case's issues with him. In the end, he gives you a letter to show to the police at the hotel that will give you permission to investigate, since it was closed off to everyone due to the murder investigation. This scenario raises a question. Given the many prosecutors in this series who are actively trying to ensure that the defense learns as little as possible about the case before the trial, why isn't that tactic used ''more'' often? Tell the public, including Phoenix, to not go anywhere near the crime scene, and if he does start snooping around, you can ''arrest him'' for it. Why is this a one-case thing?** Simple: in any other case, the attorney has the right to investigate. This is a special case, though- there was a special order employed and more police force and funds poured into it- because a notorious assassin-for-hire was involved.

* What exactly was Richard Wellington trying to achieve by whacking Phoenix over the head with a fire extinguisher in 2-1? He probably wasn't trying to kill him because a fire extinguisher isn't exactly the best murder weapon and he didn't act too shocked to see Pheonix alive and well when he took the stand. So what was he thinking? Something along the lines of "I'm going to cause you temporary plot-convenient amnesia, mwahahahaha"?** Probably more along the lines of incapacitating the defense attorney who managed to take down two of the greatest prosecutors in the world. Amnesia might not have been his primary goal. Hospitalizing him or giving him a knock that makes it far too hard to concentrate and cause him to faint mid court were probably more likely goals. Either way he didn't really want Wright at the top of his game given his reputation.** Was he supposed to walk up to Phoenix and just ask for his phone? He probably only wanted to knock him out for just long enough to take the phone. He took the wrong phone, indicating that he took it in a hurry, indicating that he didnít expect the fire extinguisher to keep him knocked out for long.** Maybe Wellington just felt in the mood. hitting Phoenix with a fire extinguisher. I bet he goes up to any sleeping person on any given day and thinks to himself, "Hmm, I want to give a good smack to this person with a fire extinguisher."

*** Actually, Nick would not be able to put Matt back on trial for the murder of Juan due to Double Jeopardy laws. However, he could put him back on trial for the kidnapping of Maya and blackmailing him into getting him a not guilty verdict. He could also defend Adrian and try to prove she was innocent. If the third game is any indication, in the AA 'verse, you can still prove someone innocent of a crime by proving that someone else committed the crime even if that person cannot be charged with that crime again (not sure if that can be done in RL), this is how Nick was able to argue that Luke Atmey was not Mask☆ [=DeMasque=], by arguing that it was Ron and Atmey was blackmailing him even though Ron could not be re-tried for that.

to:

*** Actually, Nick would not be able to put Matt back on trial for the murder of Juan due to Double Jeopardy laws. However, he could put him back on trial for the kidnapping of Maya and blackmailing him into getting him a not guilty verdict. He could also defend Adrian and try to prove she was innocent. If the third game is any indication, in the AA 'verse, you can still prove someone innocent of a crime by proving that someone else committed the crime even if that person cannot be charged with that crime again (not sure if that can be done in RL), this [[spoiler:this is how Nick was able to argue that Luke Atmey was not Mask☆ [=DeMasque=], by arguing that it was Ron and Atmey was blackmailing him even though Ron could not be re-tried for that.]]

* One thing I do not get is at the end of ''Justice For All'', when you give Edgeworth Franziska's whip and you get the extra scene for it, [[spoiler: why does Franziska begin to cry before leaving from the airport? Is she that upset that she brought shame to herself for failing to get revenge on Edgeworth?]]** Franzy is a very proud girl, just like her father. She repeatedly states that "a von Karma is perfect", so becoming emotional about a failure, any failure, seems appropriate. Plus, it may have been the writers just wanting to humanize her character.*** Franziska also seems to realize that what Edgeworth says, that being a prosecutor isn't about a perfect record but about justice for all (no pun intended), and that's something she needs to learn. It isn't about personal records or anything like that, it's about doing what's right. When she realizes that he was only able to "beat" Phoenix in court by employing those human characteristics that she has shunned, and that her entire philosophy of perfection is wrong, well...it's enough to make anyone break down.*** And there's also the fact that Phoenix had just willingly accepted his first defeat in court because it is the just outcome he wants, and can have now that Maya's safe.*** Edgeworth is essentially telling her that she doesn't need to be perfect anymore. Considering that her father had drilled this ideal of "perfection" into her head her whole life, and he's heavily implied to have gotten the death sentence, she's probably really focusing on living up to her father's expectations at this point as a way of upholding his legacy. She's being told, maybe for the first time in her life, that she doesn't need to be perfect to be a good prosecutor.

* Why does Godot blame Phoenix and then himself for the death of Mia? Phoenix wasn't there when her death occurred and Godot was ''still in a coma'' at the time. He talks about being oblivious being the worst crime imaginable, but in that situation of helplessness or unable to do anything, how could [=ANYthing=] else have been done? What other possible decisions could've been made?** I think this is intentional and related to Godot's warped, sexist worldview. He blames himself because he sees himself as Mia's protector, and blames Phoenix because he was really the only male figure in Mia's life at the time and thus by default (in Godot's view) it is Phoenix's responsibility to be alert on Mia's behalf. Godot would probably also say that it was his own carelessness that led to his being poisoned, meaning that he couldn't be around when Mia was in danger and needed his protection.*** Actually, this troper doesn't think Godot is nearly as sexist as everyone makes him out to be. This troper thinks it's down to a very simple reason- survivor's guilt. There's a tendency for survivors of tragedies, or even people who have someone important to them die- to think that they should have somehow stopped it, regardless of whether it was even possible for them to have done so. It has nothing to do with sex- Godot doesn't necessarily think of himself as Mia's protector, or think that she was incapable of taking care of herself- he just has a standard case of survivor's guilt. She died, he lived, he should have saved her, regardless of the fact that he was poisoned, simply because he was the one who lived. As for Phoenix, Godot himself stated he was just using him as a sort of scapegoat to avoid facing his own guilt. Not the greatest thing to do, but not something that one could cry sexism for.*** Still, there's an element of sexism in Godot deciding to blame Phoenix in particular. Not Maya, not Misty, not any of the women Mia was close to. He sees Phoenix, an important male in Mia's life, and assumes everything was his fault.*** ...except Misty was kind of missing and Maya was ''17''. Phoenix was the closest adult to her and worked in the same office, so he blames him for it.*** Plus the fact that he already had reason to dislike Phoenix, as he spelled out during the final trial. He helped the woman who "killed" him, however innocently he did it.* In 3-4, while Phoenix is in the hospital, how does he know that Dahlia has come back if he hasn't gotten out yet?** Two possibilities. 1: He heard about it on the news or through a correspondent. 2: He doesn't, and he is only saying as much because he can feel it in his gut. ** The answer is just that Phoenix knows there's a woman that looks '''a lot''' like Dahlia and knows him from somewhere despite denying that she attended the same university as him. Not only that - [[spoiler:he didn't know Dahlia was hanged until Edgeworth told him late in the second day of investigation in 3-5]]. For all Phoenix knew, it looked like Dahlia was back and had dyed her hair black. Pay attention to his reaction upon seeing Iris in the newspaper article Pearl brought at the start of 3-5, and it makes more sense.* In 3-4, why is the obvious contradiction that [[spoiler: The people on the bridge are facing each other, there is no way the defendant could push her down]] not able to be pointed out?** Because people can move. It's not difficult to assume that the victim had turned around at some point.* In 3-2, what was the murder weapon [[spoiler: that also knocked out Ron [=DeLite=]? I assumed it was the Schichishito, because it was bent even though Luke was never knocked out. But why would Luke take a fake sword all the way from Lordly Tailor?]]** Same troper here. In that same case, [[spoiler: How did Kane and Luke know each other? How did Kane know Luke was blackmailing Ron, and what did he have on him?]] ** Me again :(. [[spoiler: If the numbers next to each stolen item on Kane's list weren't their values, what were they?]]*** He was knocked out without a specific weapon, Luke didn't knew Kane but Kane found out somehow that he was behind [=DeMasque=]'s heists, and the numbers were maybe what Luke paid Ron for each of them, or just what he could get in the black market.*** Thank you. And if I remember correctly, presenting Kane's List to Ron merely has him confused and saying "those numbers seem too low to be the values", so I'm guessing it's not what Ron paid, but the black market thing. *** I'm not sure where this is mentioned, but I was under the impression that, while it's never put into evidence, the murder weapon was a statuette from Bullard's desk.* It just bugs me, who exactly throws or gives, the coffee to Godot during court? I mean, it slides to his hand. And also, does Godot prepare the coffee before the trial or during the trial?

* Why does Godot blame Phoenix and then himself for the death of Mia? Phoenix wasn't there when her death occurred and Godot was ''still Tribulations'', Cases 1-4]]

[[AC:Prosecutor Godot, in a coma'' at the time. He talks about being oblivious being the worst crime imaginable, but General]]%%Questions dealing with or directly citing Case 3-5 go in that situation of helplessness or unable to do anything, how could [=ANYthing=] else have been done? What other possible decisions could've been made?** I think this is intentional and related to Godot's warped, sexist worldview. He blames himself because he sees himself as Mia's protector, and blames Phoenix because he was really the only male figure in Mia's life at the time and thus by default (in Godot's view) it is Phoenix's responsibility to be alert on Mia's behalf. Godot would probably also say that it was his own carelessness that led to his being poisoned, meaning that he couldn't be around when Mia was in danger and needed his protection.*** Actually, this troper doesn't think Godot is nearly as sexist as everyone makes him out to be. This troper thinks it's down to a very simple reason- survivor's guilt. There's a tendency for survivors of tragedies, or even people who have someone important to them die- to think that they should have somehow stopped it, regardless of whether it was even possible for them to have done so. It has nothing to do with sex- Godot doesn't necessarily think of himself as Mia's protector, or think that she was incapable of taking care of herself- he just has a standard case of survivor's guilt. She died, he lived, he should have saved her, regardless of the fact that he was poisoned, simply because he was the one who lived. As for Phoenix, Godot himself stated he was just using him as a sort of scapegoat to avoid facing his own guilt. Not the greatest thing to do, but not something that one could cry sexism for.*** Still, there's an element of sexism in Godot deciding to blame Phoenix in particular. Not Maya, not Misty, not any of the women Mia was close to. He sees Phoenix, an important male in Mia's life, and assumes everything was his fault.*** ...except Misty was kind of missing and Maya was ''17''. Phoenix was the closest adult to her and worked in the same office, so he blames him for it.*** Plus the fact that he already had reason to dislike Phoenix, as he spelled out during the final trial. He helped the woman who "killed" him, however innocently he did it.folder.* In 3-4, while Phoenix is in the hospital, how does he know that Dahlia has come back if he hasn't gotten out yet?** Two possibilities. 1: He heard about it on the news or through a correspondent. 2: He doesn't, and he is only saying as much because he can feel it in his gut. ** The answer is just that Phoenix knows there's a woman that looks '''a lot''' like Dahlia and knows him from somewhere despite denying that she attended the same university as him. Not only that - [[spoiler:he didn't know Dahlia was hanged until Edgeworth told him late in the second day of investigation in 3-5]]. For all Phoenix knew, it looked like Dahlia was back and had dyed her hair black. Pay attention to his reaction upon seeing Iris in the newspaper article Pearl brought at the start of 3-5, and it makes more sense.* In 3-4, why is the obvious contradiction that [[spoiler: The people on the bridge are facing each other, there is no way the defendant could push her down]] not able to be pointed out?** Because people can move. It's not difficult to assume that the victim had turned around at some point.* In 3-2, what was the murder weapon [[spoiler: that also knocked out Ron [=DeLite=]? I assumed it was the Schichishito, because it was bent even though Luke was never knocked out. But why would Luke take a fake sword all the way from Lordly Tailor?]]** Same troper here. In that same case, [[spoiler: How did Kane and Luke know each other? How did Kane know Luke was blackmailing Ron, and what did he have on him?]] ** Me again :(. [[spoiler: If the numbers next to each stolen item on Kane's list weren't their values, what were they?]]*** He was knocked out without a specific weapon, Luke didn't knew Kane but Kane found out somehow that he was behind [=DeMasque=]'s heists, and the numbers were maybe what Luke paid Ron for each of them, or just what he could get in the black market.*** Thank you. And if I remember correctly, presenting Kane's List to Ron merely has him confused and saying "those numbers seem too low to be the values", so I'm guessing it's not what Ron paid, but the black market thing. *** I'm not sure where this is mentioned, but I was under the impression that, while it's never put into evidence, the murder weapon was a statuette from Bullard's desk.* It just bugs me, who Who exactly throws or gives, the coffee to Godot during court? I mean, it slides to his hand. And also, does Godot prepare the coffee before the trial or during the trial?

* In ''Trials and Tribulations'', it's revealed that part of the reason Mia went off to law school and left Kurain Village behind was because she didn't want her and her sister to end up fighting over who was the head of the Main Family and who was the head of the Branch Family [[spoiler:as their mother and aunt did.]] Given that this meant that someone could step down from leading the family, why is that Morgan Fey [[spoiler:went to all the trouble of framing Maya for murder in order to remove her for consideration as heir to the title of Master? Given how much Maya and Pearl love each other and the fact that Maya doesn't even like the politics of Kurain Village anyway, would it just have been easier to ''ask'' Maya to step aside in favor of Pearl?]]** It would never occur to Morgan that Maya would comply.** She couldn't just ask Maya. Maya and Mia were siblings of the main family and in that case it's just a matter of who have the most spiritual powers. Pearl is from the branch family and the only time the village would pick someone from a branch family is when there was no one left in the main one.** You seem to be forgetting the little detail that Morgan is [[spoiler:batshit insane. She doesn't just want Pearl to become head of the clan, she also genuinely hates Misty and wants her and her daughters to suffer. Seriously, even ''Dahlia Hawthorne'' finds Morgan a little too evil for her tastes. And when ''Dahlia'' finds a character creepy, you can't expect anything resembling common sense from her.]]* In 3-5, Edgeworth states that a prosecutor can "carry a whip or drink 17 cups of coffee." I don't remember Gumshoe ever mentioning Godot's coffee addiction. How did Edgeworth know?** Because Edgeworth met [[spoiler:Diego Armando]] during [[spoiler:his very first case as a prosecutor]] and recognized that [[spoiler:he and Godot were one and the same]]?*** Even when he hasn't even met him? Remember, Godot was [[spoiler:stuck on the other side of the Inner Temple at the time, so Edgeworth had no way to meet him and realize that he was Armando.]]** Edgeworth was still a prosecutor with a fair bit of connections, even if he was spending time abroad. It's not that odd that someone else at the prosecutors office or in the police would tell him about Phoenix Wright's newest rival.

to:

* In 3-2, Phoenix says that Godot is the "most dangerous man he's ever faced in court", or something along those lines. Phoenix had only known him for a few hours, and the most Godot did was throw coffee at Phoenix. Sure, Godot has a deep, bitter dislike for Phoenix that Phoenix didn't know about, but why would Phoenix think that? Franziska was also after him, and used a whip. Plus, there's Manfred von Karma (world-class prosecutor, among other things), [[spoiler: Matt Engarde, and de Killer, both of whom put Maya in danger.]] Really, why would Phoenix act as if Godot was his most dangerous foe?** Simple answer: hyperbole. Complicated answer: He obviously knows that Godot has it in for him, and he's just assuming that Godot has more tricks up his sleeves in the future. Not a perfect answer, but it does make some sense.** It's his personality. Edgeworth, Franziska, even Manfred von Karma to an extent all behaved like prosecutors; while they were varying degrees of corrupt, they respected the courtroom and behaved in a courtly fashion. Manfred was dangerous because he would do anything to win a conviction, but that also made him understandable to an extent. Phoenix could look at him and know, "This is what that man is, and what he is capable of." Edgeworth and Franziska were similar; as children of Manfred (one more literally than the other), they weren't hard to identify and understand who they are, where they come from, and how far they'll go. Godot is different. He's a complete mystery. He doesn't act like a prosecutor, he's always grinning like a jackal, and even when he's just lost his case, he ''acts'' like he won. Phoenix has no idea who this man is, where he came from, or why he has such a violent ''grudge'' against him. Von Karma was a devil, but he was a devil that Phoenix could see quite clearly from the moment he met him. Godot is a mystery wrapped up in malice that came out of nowhere, seems to have no history or point of origin, and is capable of ''anything'' because of it.*** You mean "a mystery wrapped in malice from the blackest dregs at the bottom of the cup."** In addition to the above, Godot successfully manipulated Phoenix in a way none of the prosecutors or killers had before. A von Karma might get his client found guilty and beat him that way, but when Phoenix had that thought, it was because he thought Godot had tricked him into ''proving his own client was the murderer.''* A question I have in regards to the fanbase, rather than the game itself- where do the accusations of sexism on Godot's part come from? I mean, I know that he isn't the greatest person in the world, but I never noticed any signs of considering women beneath him. I mean, there was that incident with Franziska, but that just reeks of DoubleStandard if that's where people are coming from- he says that he hates women like her, but this is a woman who routinely throws fits resulting in the whipping of anyone nearby, sometimes into unconsciousness. On top of that, she routinely victimizes men (outside of Justice for All) (and even there, she still does it, she just includes women as well) and yet many of these occasions are on the CrowningMomentOfFunny page. So, [[UnfortunateImplications woman routinely abusing men=funny, man calling her out on it=awful chauvinist?]] Aside from that, there's the accusation that he considered Mia too frail to defend herself, which is so ridiculous I didn't even know about it until I read about it on this very page. As I said in response to that, his guilt over Mia's death is survivor's guilt, more than anything, which has nothing to do with sex. He certainly never refers to her as though he thought she was incapable of defending herself- to the best of my memory. I'm not defending Godot as a character, as he's very divisive to me (mostly due to 3-5) but seriously, where are these accusations of sexism coming from?** A lot of it also comes from 3-4, where he repeatedly refers to Mia as words like "tiger" and "kitten" in the courtroom, generally speaks to her in a condescending tone, and on several occasions suggests that she's not qualified to stand as defense on her own. It's not hard to see his words as demeaning, and I've seen at least one Let's Play group tear into him for it during a blind run.*** Ah. Well, that makes some more sense. It's certainly a better explanation than either of the ones I mentioned before, which, believe it or not, I ''have'' heard people argue. I can definitely see where that would come across as sexist. I mean, it didn't seem that way to me, more like an affectionate nickname than anything, but then again, that's what YMMV is for.*** If you look at how Diego uses his commentary to Mia, and how she responds to it, I see it much more as him being condescending to her as a way of getting her to fight back. He usually calls her "kitten" and such when she's letting Edgeworth dictate the pace of the trial or if she's otherwise being timid. And every time, it pisses her off and she puts her game face back on. Furthermore, notice that, as Mia becomes accustomed to fighting in court, Diego backs off on calling her these things.*** Diego's attitude towards Mia could just be part of his generally smug personality rather than sexism.** Also, worth noting that Godot acts rather condescending towards Dessie in case 3-2, too. The wording of his comments was something along the lines of her being a good wife and swooping in to save her husband, which could easily be read as her "[[UnfortunateImplications knowing her place]]" if you're not especially charitable.*** Now that's just looking for offense for the sake of it. How does trying to save your husband, or vice-versa, ''not'' make either person a good spouse? It's not like Godot was saying she should stay in the kitchen and make Ron a sandwich, he just made a comment that highlighted her doing what any human with normal emotions would do in that situation, that is trying to get her beloved life partner cleared of a murder implication.... maybe by any means necessary. ** I recall during that case he made some remarks towards Ron that he wasn't a "real man" because of his more timid and effeminate character, although I don't recall them specifically enough to say if that was truly the case. But that's the only thing that stuck out to me as sexist at the time. I think overall it's what you say, people looking for offense for the sake of it. Nearly all of Godot's "sexist" moments can individually be explained as not being motivated by sexism, but because he has quite a few of them, and people might have reasons not to read him too charitably, lots of people in the fanbase ignore the other explanations. Might also be some kind of stereotyping, since he's Hispanic (Latino?) and stereotypes exist of Hispanics being more hypermasculine and chauvinist. Not that I've looked around in the fandom, generally.** While I can understand people disagreeing on Godot being sexist, Franziska ''really'' is not a good counterpoint. The fact her victims are mostly men is just because the cast of Ace Attorney is mostly men, the reason for her violent outbursts is all but directly stated to be because she's emotionally stunted and socially inept, and the reason most people view it as funny more than anything is because the game plays those moments for comedy. Because Franziska is a character with every dial cranked up to eleven where Godot is meant to be read with more nuance the fandom reading similar actions differently isn't a sexist double-standard, it's the actions themselves meaning different things in different contexts.

[[AC:Case 3-1]]* The Judge and Winston Payne in 3-1 [[spoiler:and 3-4]], the reactions they show to the witnesses, with no comment whatso ever on MsFanservice ?** I think it's the fact that Dahlia [[TheIngenue looks and acts so sweet and innocent]] and angelic [[spoiler:(which she's not)]] that she has the Judge and Payne under her spell for that reason rather than her looks. There's a difference between looking hot (like Mia does) and looking like you'd never hurt a fly (like Dahlia does).*** Indeed. Dahlia looks completely harmless, vulnerable, needing and worthy of protection. Mia is confident and aggressive (when she's not being rookie-nervous), exactly what many men find threatening... indeed, this is underlined when the force of her point ''blows Payne's hair away''. There's probably a trope or three in there.** For what it's worth, Gumshoe does make a comment in which he flat-out tells Mia, "You're really gorgeous!"* In the first case of ''Trials and Tribulations'', it's revealed Winston Payne says that part of perhaps the reason Mia went off to law school and left Kurain Village behind was because she didn't want her and her sister to end up fighting over who was the head of the Main Family and who was the head of the Branch Family [[spoiler:as their mother and aunt did.]] Given that this meant that someone victim could step down have grabbed the bottle of medicine to "identify the killer" or something to that effect. [[spoiler: Did the victim stop and pick it up as he was about to be murdered and hold onto it while being electrocuted, or did he pick it up after having electricity from leading the family, why is that Morgan Fey [[spoiler:went to all the trouble of framing Maya for murder in order to remove her for consideration as heir to the title of Master? Given how much Maya and Pearl love each other and the fact that Maya a high voltage wire surge through his body? The bottle was most likely planted.]] It doesn't even like the politics of Kurain Village anyway, would it just bother me that Payne said it, but that Mia didn't pick up on it.** She probably did, but that argument wouldn't have been easier to ''ask'' Maya to step aside in favor of Pearl?]]** It would never occur to Morgan that Maya would comply.** held water. She couldn't just ask Maya. Maya and possibly know when he grabbed the bottle OR known how long he lived after being electrocuted.* In case 3-1 why is Mia were siblings of so surprised when she learns Doug couldn't have been hit by lightning? Did she forget who was at the main family and in witness stand?** Mia appears to have taken the case based solely on hearing that case it's just a matter of who have the most spiritual powers. Pearl is from the branch family and the only time the village would pick someone from a branch family is when there Dahlia was no one left in the main one.** You seem to be forgetting the little detail that Morgan is [[spoiler:batshit insane. involved. She doesn't appear to have figured very many things out before entering the courtroom. When she first went into the courtroom, she didn't know exactly what had happened and had no way of being sure of who or what did it. She's basically like Phoenix himself when he first started out, i.e. greenhorn.** Also, IIRC, the way the whole hit-by-lightning thing happened, it seemed (to me, at least) that Mia was just want Pearl saying it to buy herself some time. Besides, although that turned out to be wrong, she still figured that Dahlia was up to something, so it's possible that she was going to say something like Dahlia pushed Doug towards the lightning (although that would have made for a flimsy argument).** Because even if Mia took the case for revenge she was still a defence attorney and her primary job was to make sure that Phoenix won't be found guilty. Lightning would've won her case had it happened.* Okay, maybe I'm just being dumb, but in Case 3-1, there's an offhand line from Mia, regarding Phoenix, saying "that P on his sweater doesn't stand for Phoenix!" when she's mad at him for lying. Was this just GettingCrapPastTheRadar and calling him a "pussy" (seeing as he was crying at the time) or something else?** It could be, but there's another word that starts with 'P' and means roughly the same thing without being mildly vulgar and out of character for Mia - I took it as her calling him a "pansy".*** It could also be something like "pathetic" or "pitiful." That's what I assumed at first, and wouldn't have thought it was something dirtier if I hadn't seen anyone else suggest it. There's ''several'' derogatory words starting with P that Mia could've meant there, really.* At the end of case 3-1, Phoenix says that he wants to become head a lawyer in order to save his friend (or something to that effect). If he's talking about Larry, how did he predict three years in advance that Larry would be accused of the clan, she also genuinely hates Misty murder? Or had Larry already been accused and wants her and her daughters to suffer. Seriously, even ''Dahlia Hawthorne'' finds Morgan a little too evil somehow put off his trial for her tastes. And when ''Dahlia'' finds a character creepy, you can't expect anything resembling common sense from her.]]* In 3-5, three years so that Phoenix could defend him?** He's talking about Edgeworth. The first game details his efforts to change him.*** So he became an attorney in order to save Edgeworth states from being like Manfred von Karma?*** In a nutshell, Phoenix mentions in the first game that what pushed him to become an attorney was hearing all of the media coverage of Edgeworth's success as a prosecutor. Facing him in the courtroom was the only chance he felt he had to confront Edgeworth about becoming a ruthless prosecutor can "carry a whip or drink 17 cups instead of coffee." I don't remember Gumshoe ever mentioning Godot's coffee addiction. How did Edgeworth know?** Because Edgeworth met [[spoiler:Diego Armando]] during [[spoiler:his a defence attorney like his father.*** But he also says to Mia in the very first case as a prosecutor]] and recognized of the first game, before even entering the courtroom, that [[spoiler:he ''Larry'' is one of the reasons he became a lawyer. Edgeworth's reputation and Godot were one and refusal to communicate with Phoenix was probably what pushed him into making the same]]?*** Even when he hasn't even met him? Remember, Godot was [[spoiler:stuck final decision to study law on the other side side, but he says it's because of both of them that he decides to become a defense attorney. So probably he'd been at least considering it since that classroom "trial", perhaps also because of Edgeworth's shining image of his own father.*** One of the Inner Temple at reasons he became a lawyer was a class trial. Larry supported Edge in saying that Phoenix is innocent and that's what sparkled friendship between the time, so Edgeworth had no three of them. So yes Larry is still one of the reasons(although he still did it to confront Edge)

[[AC:Case 3-2]]* In 3-2, what was the murder weapon [[spoiler: that also knocked out Ron [=DeLite=]? I assumed it was the Schichishito, because it was bent even though Luke was never knocked out. But why would Luke take a fake sword all the way to meet him from Lordly Tailor?]]** Same troper here. In that same case, [[spoiler: How did Kane and realize Luke know each other? How did Kane know Luke was blackmailing Ron, and what did he have on him?]] ** Me again :(. [[spoiler: If the numbers next to each stolen item on Kane's list weren't their values, what were they?]]*** He was knocked out without a specific weapon, Luke didn't knew Kane but Kane found out somehow that he was Armando.]]** Edgeworth was still a prosecutor with a fair bit of connections, even if he was spending time abroad. It's not that odd that someone else at behind [=DeMasque=]'s heists, and the prosecutors office numbers were maybe what Luke paid Ron for each of them, or just what he could get in the police would tell black market.*** Thank you. And if I remember correctly, presenting Kane's List to Ron merely has him about Phoenix Wright's newest rival.confused and saying "those numbers seem too low to be the values", so I'm guessing it's not what Ron paid, but the black market thing. *** I'm not sure where this is mentioned, but I was under the impression that, while it's never put into evidence, the murder weapon was a statuette from Bullard's desk.

* Question about the last case of ''Trials and Tribulations'': [[spoiler:Is there any way that Godot's going to get any sort of harsh sentence for actions? He was protecting someone he cared about from an obvious psychopath who had killed multiple times before. This is like Luke going to jail for killing Darth Vader or something like that.]]** Well, he didn't really [[spoiler: kill ''her'', he killed Misty Fey, who was an innocent woman. The result of his action was that Maya's mother died and Dahlia survived (as much as she already was) to testify in court.]]** There's also the popular fan theory that [[spoiler: Godot is in such poor health that he died soon after the trial. The only thing keeping him alive was sheer determination to defeat Phoenix Wright and/or protect Maya. So while he may have been convicted, he never went to jail.]]*** Note that this depends on what Godot tells Phoenix to explain the former's absence until that point -- but Godot is [[spoiler: lying to cover up that he had been on that side of the river all along. The medical treatments he says or implies he had been undergoing at that time never happened.]] So he could be in much better shape than he claims, aside from his vision. For that matter, he survived [[spoiler: an unplanned stay of two days in midwinter with totally inadequate facilities.]]** Despite his actions, [[spoiler: Godot killed someone. And it's pointed out quite specifically, by Godot no less, that he really had a number of options available were he just looking to protect Maya. By actively killing Misty, he acknowledged and confessed to premeditated murder. Even though it may have been consider justifiable had he only acted to save her...he had plenty of time to do something else. Sentence: death.]]** He was a man desperate for [[spoiler: revenge from the woman who poisoned him and ruined his life. Dahlia was already dead, but after reading the note and knowing he could find a way to exact revenge, he used Maya's family for his own selfish needs. In my interpretation, I'd say he's up there with Dahlia in terms of being a main villain of that game.]]*** That would make sense if [[spoiler: Godot had planned on killing Misty from the beginning rather than hoping that there was a way to stop the plot against Maya without killing anyone. That interpretation is at odds with the game: 1. Misty said she had hoped she could stop the whole thing just by reading to Pearl all evening. Maybe Godot was in on that. 2. Godot said that the reason he hadn't asked for Phoenix's help was out of pride. Assuming this is true, this implies that it ''wasn't'' because he wanted to prevent plans for stopping the attack without killing anyone from succeeding.]]*** [[spoiler: Here's the thing: there is no such thing as premeditated self-defense/defense of other. Godot had ample forewarning about what was going to transpire, and had ample opportunity to warn the police, Phoenix, Maya, Misty, Sister Bikini, any number of people who could have caused Morgan's plan to go belly up without endangering the lives of anyone involved. Instead, he chose to withhold the information in order to play the hero himself. By his own admission, this was a selfish decision made not for Maya's benefit, but so that Godot could make amends to himself for not being there to save Mia, and also partially inspired by a desire for revenge against Godot's own would-be murderer, Dahlia Hawthorne. Although he was not planning to kill Misty Fey, he made the choice to allow the engangerment of many out of selfishness, and Misty Fey paid for that selfishness with her life. It's very easy to sympathize with Godot; he IS a victim, after all, and he suffered tremendously for other people's choices. Who hasn't lost someone they loved tremendously for reasons they felt were beyond their control? However, sympathetic though he may be, he still made poor choices that resulted in the death of an innocent woman, and his conviction for her murder is the consequence for that decision. Godot effectively paid his trauma forward to Maya and Pearl, taking their mother/aunt away from them before their relationships with her could ever even really get off the ground for his own selfish motives, just as Dahlia and Redd White took Mia from him.]]** This may not be an actual law, but I think it's likely that [[spoiler:you can only plead self-defense or protecting somebody if you plead so right off the bat. He was actually PROSECUTING somebody else for the murder, and never admitted to his actions until the last minute. He probably had this option (Hey Phoenix it was me, no need for a case.) but wanted one showdown with Phoenix.]]** [[spoiler: Godot, for one, admitted to murdering Misty. Misty agreed to be murdered, too, mind you, so this is basically assisted suicide. Godot went with this method because, one, it would protect Maya, and two, it would give him the chance to put Phoenix "in his place" for not protecting Mia. Godot is just as much of a villain as von Karma, in that he had a petty reason to do the elaborate crime he committed. Godot, in the end, committed premeditated murder and actively tried to push the blame on someone else.]]*** [[spoiler: Misty never planned on getting murdered so much as she preferred to assume that risk for herself rather than making Pearl take the risk. She may have consented to being killed if there was no other way to stop Dahlia, but that wasn't plan A for her. There isn't proof that that was plan A for Godot, either. It is also implied that he didn't fully make up his mind to kill her until after he was stabbed.]]*** [[spoiler:They were both still fully aware that it was an option. Godot not only admitted that ''he knew'' at that moment that he wouldn't really be stopping "Dahlia" and knew that it was really Misty ''or Pearl'' that he'd be stabbing, he also admitted that he willingly risked Maya's life just so he could go in and "save" her. That kind of implies that he pretty much let Dahlia get summoned despite the fact he probably knew that it would make it fairly likely that at least ''one'' person would walk out of there with at least some serious injuries]].** In ''[=AAI2=]'', [[spoiler:criminals from the previous game are shown as still alive.]] Also, [[spoiler: Kristoph in ''Apollo Justice'' was sitting around in his jail cell, clearly not dead for murdering an innocent man.]]*** [[spoiler: Kristoph had connections mad enough to get a ''freakin wall full of books'' on his solitary cell. It's really likely he was using those same connections to avert his sentence.]] *** [[spoiler: Time is a factor. People tend to sit on Death Row for a fairly decent amount of time before their actual execution. Dahlia Hawthorne was evil as they come and still took - I think the game said six months? - before her execution.]]*** [[spoiler: Actually, Dahlia was on Death Row for five years, not six months. And wasn't 'Dahlia' going to ''kill'' Maya regardless of being in Misty's body? Yes, what Godot did was undeniably selfish, but in a way, it was in defence of another, I thought.]]*** [[spoiler: There is no such thing as pre-meditated defense of another. By not acting on the information he had until the event was transpiring, Godot allowed the attempt on Maya's life to happen so that he could make his move. In this way, he becomes an accomplice to the attempt on Maya's life in addition to being the culprit responsible for the murder of Misty Fey. Had he done the responsible thing, Maya's life would never have been in danger to begin with, and Misty would still be alive. Thus, Godot shares responsibility for Maya's attempted murder, and is out-and-out guilty of the murder of Misty Fey.]]*** [[spoiler: Iris and Misty were also aware of the murder plot, though. They could have told someone, but like Godot, they didn't. Misty is killed but Iris isn't. Then shouldn't Iris be guilty of assisting a murder? Personally, I think that they should look at what Godot did - he defended Maya, and if Iris wasn't being tried for concealing knowledge of the plot, then it would not be fair to try Godot for that. All Iris is going to be tried for is altering the crime scene, not concealing the plot. Why try Godot for that, then? I think Godot would be ruled as having killed in defense of another, thus a not guilty verdict, but would die shortly after due to his poor health. Oh, and posts above said that Godot was just as much of a villain as Manfred von Karma or Dahlia. Don't get me started on the high degree to which those statements are wrong.]]*** [[spoiler:Misty and Iris were accomplices, but we don't know how much Godot told them about what was going on. Somehow, I doubt he brought up the fact that he could have stopped the whole situation simply by stealing Morgan's letter and thus keeping Pearl from learning about the plan to begin with. He also played off of Iris's guilty conscious over Dahlia. Given how determined he was to have his chance to play the hero against Dahlia, he very well might have convinced the two that it was in their best interests to not call the police. Not to mention that when they agreed to the plan, murder wasn't a part of it. The ideal plan was that Misty would keep Pearl distracted, and Dahlia wouldn't have been summoned at all. Iris had no part in Godot's decision to kill Dahlia (and by extension, Misty) until he told her to alter the crime scene.]]** The thing is,[[spoiler:Godot was acting in self defense, and in defense of Maya. But, he was willing to let an innocent person be convicted of the crime, withheld information from the police that put the lives of Maya, Pearl, Misty, and even Iris at risk, and by choosing to go after Dahlia himself instead of get police help, he took justice into his own hands, which is vigilantism. All these things would lead to him getting a guilty verdict. Whether he gets found guilty or not, though, it's safe to assume Godot didn't survive long after the events of the game.]]** Is no one going to point out that [[spoiler:withholding information which could prevent a murder]] is still legally somewhere between murder 2 and voluntary manslaughter? Both of which are shown in-universe to be punished the same as murder 1?* Case 3-5: [[spoiler: Why didn't Godot swing across on the same rope that carried Misty's body?]]** Because [[spoiler: if he fell into the river, he'd die, most probably.]]*** But [[spoiler: he wouldn't fall in as long as he tied the rope securely around himself, like he did to Misty. And since Dahlia was still at large as far as he knew (he wasn't there when Maya locked herself in the cavern), risking the river would seem to be the safer bet.]]*** [[spoiler: The victim fell 10 feet after death because of that rope trick. If Godot had attempted it, he'd have died whether or not he fell into the river.]]*** [[spoiler: Oh my god, a ten foot drop! [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat No one could survive that!]]]]*** [[spoiler: [[ProfessionalWrestling How do ya learn to fall off a 20 foot ladder?]]]]*** [[spoiler: It was late at night, it was cold, his body was utterly messed up, and he had gone for hours without his coffee. It was not the time for a dramatic action sequence. Besides, he had some snow to clean up first. And... uh... Mia would have never forgiven him if he had left Maya alone on that side all night.]]*** Also, [[spoiler: there was always the chance that someone would see him. I think the point of Iris framing herself rather than just dropping the body into the water was to create a court case, so that Godot could blend in with the investigation group and get back home without arousing suspicion.]]*** [[spoiler: He never got the chance to actually escape, after using the rope to swing the body it ended up dangling in the middle of the bridge like it's seen on the photo, it didn't return to the other side. And he didn't swing along with the body because he had cleaning to do.]]*** Not to mention [[spoiler: he got stabbed in the face earlier. Do you really feel like swinging across a dangerous river on a flimsy rope connected to a burning bridge, all the while with a stabbed face?]]* How did Dahlia [[spoiler:successfully impersonate Iris? We've seen various members of the Fey family channel Mia, and each time, while [[{{Fanservice}} Mia's presence]] was fully visible, it was also obvious who was channeling her. Yet she managed a picture-perfect Iris imitation, and one that can fool ''the player'', unlike Tigre. She didn't display Maya's black hair, nor her usual red. (On the brighter side, as seen when Dahlia left her body, Maya's hair ''was'' let down.) She couldn't have planned for this, either; the intent was for ''Pearl'' to channel her, and both Misty and Maya's channelings occurred without her knowledge. (For the record, does she dye? You wouldn't expect identical twins to have such different hair colors, yet even her spirit is a fiery redhead.)]]** With regards to the hair dye stuff, I always assumed that Iris was the one who dyed her hair, because of the whole deal with the spirit.*** Given that almost everyone else in the family has black or dark brown hair, Dahlia's has to be the one that's dyed. Her spirit's ''eyes'' are red too, aren't they? Can't be literal.*** Everyone else in the ''Fey'' family. The twins could've inherited red hair from their father, who is never seen. And Dahlia didn't have red eyes when she was alive, so that's just a visual cue that she's an evil spirit. This ''does'' invalidate the logic that the red hair of Dahlia's spirit proves that hers was the natural hair color, but at the same time, there's reasonable doubt--bright red hair would stand out among the dark-haired Feys, so Iris could've dyed it when she returned to Hazakura Temple to become a shrine maiden.*** Also, remember that [[spoiler:Iris successfully impersonated Dahlia when Dahlia and Phoenix were dating back in Ivy University. Either way, Iris would have to have dyed her hair at some point in time, whereas the only time Dahlia has impersonated Iris was when her spirit was in Maya's body.]]** And a minor thing: [[spoiler:does that mean that Iris was wearing Maya's outfit when she was found?]] Not an IJBM; just an excuse for fanart.*** I think [[spoiler:Maya changed into a Hazakura Temple outfit before she began training. Sure, her sprites during the flashback have her wearing her usual clothes, but that's just because Capcom didn't have much room to spare on the GBA cart.]]*** My only conclusion is that Dahlia and Iris actually do have black hair and the visual difference is just for the sake of the player. Which still doesn't explain the non-black haired people that were channeling her and ARGH ARGH [[MST3KMantra JUST A GAME BRAIN HURT]].** [[spoiler: Iris has black hair. Dahlia was impersonating Iris]]. Maya has black hair. [[spoiler: Dahlia had Maya's hair]]. I honestly don't see a problem here.*** It may just be an optical illusion, but Iris's hair looks gray to me. Also, the host keeps her hairstyle, and I don't know if Maya's hair braids up that well in the front.*** Dahlia testified that [[spoiler: when she was channeled that night, the first thing she did was pin her hair up, though why she did that when she was going to be wearing a hood, or how she did it without hair pins or the like, is beyond me. At that time she was actually being channeled by Misty Fey, though she didn't know it; maybe when she was channeled by the mystery medium in the Training Hall she pinned her hair up in the dark?]]*** One thing though, [[spoiler: Dahlia could not have been surprised to learn that it was Maya who was chanelling her in court. The hairstyle of the summoner is kept (when either Maya or Pearl channel Mia), so in pinning her hair up, Dahlia must have at least felt, if not seen her hair. if she really had been summoned by Pearl, then she wouldn't have been able to impersonate Iris anyway since she's a light brunette. Dahlia should have known Maya summoned her if she gave it a moment of thought.]] *** Except that [[spoiler: Dahlia Never met Maya, Pearl or for that matter Misty. Morgan might've shown her Maya's picture so she'd know who to kill, but she had no way of knowing which of these three called her]]*** It seemed more like she never suspected that Maya could have come up with the idea to channel Dahlia's spirit on her own (which she didn't). As for the hair, unless Morgan specifically told Dahlia "My daughter will summon you. She has pretzel hair, remember that", there wouldn't be any reason for Dahlia to ''not'' believe that the medium who summoned her was anyone other than Pearl Fey.** Dahlia simply never knew Pearl's hair color, as in the original plan she was supposed to wear a hood while she was channeled anyway - Morgan would have had no reason to warn her that Pearl's hair wasn't black. Since Morgan's hair is black and Dahlia might have seen herself in a mirror after Misty channeled her, it was perfectly natural for her to assume that Pearl's hair was black when she unexpectedly woke up in the cavern and went on to impersonate Iris without a hood.** There's also one more possibility. [[spoiler:Maya Fey was told by Mia to channel Dahlia. Maya doesn't go into a lot of detail about what Mia wrote. It is possible that, along with the instructions to channel Dahlia, Mia also told her to change outfits and put her hair down to avoid suspicion, and just didn't mention it to anybody.]]** There's a possibility that Iris and Dahlia have the same color hair, but it is colored differently as a convenience to the audience. The same thing comes up all the time in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', where anime-Ranma's black hair changes to red when in female form but other characters can't always tell the difference right away.* Godot [[spoiler: replaced his blood on the dagger with some other blood, I assume. Why didn't he just get rid of the thing? There was a raging river right below him.]]** [[spoiler: If you mean the night of the deal, he couldn't find the dagger. If you mean the day of the trial, Gumshoe was the one who gave it to him, he couldn't just get rid of it after that.]]** Personally, I don't believe that he [[spoiler: changed the blood on the dagger at all.]] Why? Because the dagger, [[spoiler:and the blood on it,]] is the ''only'' direct, physical evidence of [[spoiler: Godot's presence at the scene of the crime.]] Which means that, if Godot's coverup of what happened failed, that dagger, [[spoiler:and the blood on it,]] is the only way he has to [[spoiler:prove Maya Fey's innocence.]] The reason he says that [[spoiler:he swapped the blood on the dagger]] is just to throw a final hurdle at Wright, to force him to prove what really happened, leaving no doubt about who the killer is.** [[spoiler: Why could he not find the dagger the night of the murder? The garden isn't that big.]]*** Yes, but it ended up [[spoiler:stuck in the back of a tree.]] Not exactly the first place you'd look for a [[spoiler:knife that had been randomly flung somewhere.]] If that doesn't do it for you, well, Godot's vision is messed up.*** Now that I think about it, how did it get stuck [[spoiler: in the reverse side of the tree, anyway? If their fight was near the lantern, shouldn't it have ended up in the ''front'' of the tree (the part you see when you enter the garden)]]?*** I firmly believe the reason that is so, it's because they didn't want you to find it and have the blood examined, and have [[spoiler: Godot be instantly snagged into the case.]]*** Or it's possible that [[spoiler:Godot was just lying and he went and put it there in the tree himself so nobody would find it until later]].* 3-5 is full of it, in my opinion: [[spoiler: How is it that Godot could tie a rope swing around Elise's body that supported her during mid-swing but came loose at the end? I try and work out the physics of it, and the way I see it, that body either should have dropped in the river or stayed on the rope, hanging down over the river. It would have made a lot more sense if Iris had caught it, but then there wouldn't have been that infamous ten-foot drop.]]** There are certain knots that can be tied that, when pressure is released, they come undone. When [[spoiler: Misty's body swung up at the end of the arc, the knot was probably loosened enough for the body to slip free.]]** He swung it with precision so that it would come up next to the outcropping on the Hazakura Temple side, then move sideways a little and drop ''on'' the outcropping. As for why friction had seemingly no effect, he ''threw'' it down.* The Judge and Winston Payne in 3-1 and 3-4, the reactions they show to the witnesses, with no comment whatso ever on MsFanservice ?** I think it's the fact that Dahlia [[TheIngenue looks and acts so sweet and innocent]] and angelic [[spoiler:(which she's not)]] that she has the Judge and Payne under her spell for that reason rather than her looks. There's a difference between looking hot (like Mia does) and looking like you'd never hurt a fly (like Dahlia does).*** Indeed. Dahlia looks completely harmless, vulnerable, needing and worthy of protection. Mia is confident and aggressive (when she's not being rookie-nervous), exactly what many men find threatening... indeed, this is underlined when the force of her point ''blows Payne's hair away''. There's probably a trope or three in there.** For what it's worth, Gumshoe does make a comment in which he flat-out tells Mia, "You're really gorgeous!"* In the first case of ''Trials and Tribulations'', Winston Payne says that perhaps the victim could have grabbed the bottle of medicine to "identify the killer" or something to that effect. [[spoiler: Did the victim stop and pick it up as he was about to be murdered and hold onto it while being electrocuted, or did he pick it up after having electricity from a high voltage wire surge through his body? The bottle was most likely planted.]] It doesn't bother me that Payne said it, but that Mia didn't pick up on it.** She probably did, but that argument wouldn't have held water. She couldn't possibly know when he grabbed the bottle OR known how long he lived after being electrocuted.* Case 3-3 involves an unplanned murder - [[spoiler:Furio Tigre didn't expect Glen to win the lottery and back out of the deal. He only manages to avoid suspicion by reenacting the crime and planting evidence on an unconscious Maggey.]] So what exactly would the murderer have done had [[spoiler:Maggey not fainted and simply called the police? Or what if Maggey hadn't passed out for an hour, and instead woke up before or during the reenactment?]] Seems like a pretty flimsy plan to me . . . .** It's probable that [[spoiler:Viola]] can be called in as witness, as a witness to the scene when the killing happened, and [[spoiler:Jean was also in the plan, so there's no witness to support Maggey]]. For [[spoiler:Maggey waking up]], well, if I remember correctly, [[spoiler:she was carried out]]. It would still be an flimsy plan, though.** On a related note, can anyone genuinely picture [[spoiler:Furio slipping poison into someone's drink unnoticed? I mean, he's the anthropomorphic personification of intimidation! His impersonation of Phoenix consisted of yelling at and threatening everyone. His attempts to throw suspicion off himself in court consisted of yelling at and threatening everyone. He doesn't strike me as the calm, subtle type at all! Now, see, if ''Viola'' had slipped it in there...]]*** Considering [[spoiler:how intimidating he is]], it's not entirely likely that the victim would have been looking him in the eye... or even at his body.*** If you look at intro, you can see that Elg was indeed facing away from the killer when he poisoned the coffee.* Why, in case 3-5, does [[spoiler:Dahlia's spirit have red hair? Dahlia did have red hair when alive, but as demonstrated by the Kurain Channeling Technique, spirits take on their host's hair. Why does Dahlia's spirit thus have hair, and not the actual features of Dahlia which are channeled?]]** It's been shown before that the host acquires some of the more iconic features of the person they are channeling: Mia and Pearl both acquire Mia's facial features, her rather impressive bust, and a mole, which would imply rather extensive physical change (in Pearl's case, at least two feet). It's possible that the specific feature you mentioned is merely such a part of the character's self-image that it transformed the channeler.** You make no sense, [[spoiler: when we see the spirit Dahlia had already stopped being channeled, so what we are seeing is her real self, so it's obvious it's going to have her normal hair again, she isn't even in Maya's body at that point]].** My theory is that the harder it is to control a spirit, the less he or she would look like the channeler.** It's a spirit. When the spirit inhabits a host, the spirit has to borrow the host's body and share physical features. When it's outside the body, it can look like whatever it wants to be. Recall 1-5, where Mia's spirit appears twice looking like she did in life. As for why it only has her red hair, remember that the spirit is being exorcised, and most likely 'fading away' just before she disappears completely. The red hair probably ''is'' important enough to the spirit that it stays on even after her other features have turned into shadows. A possible explanation may be that she actually dyed it, and her hair is actually black all along. The act of it may be important to her, perhaps symbolic of her taking charge of her own life, and thus why she values it enough to place such importance on it.* I'm very confused by the map of the Hazakura Temple area you receive in case 3-5. It appears to be a scale map of the area, including both temples, the hall and the bridge. The thing is, we know that bridge from the previous case, and both that case's map of the bridge and [[spoiler:Edgeworth's estimate of its length to Gumshoe]] put it at twenty meters in length. The path from Hazakura to the bridge appears to be about three to four times that distance, counting meandering. So eighty meters tops. It takes ''fifteen'' minutes to walk that far, or five minutes by snowmobile? That's basically... eighty steps. Even in the cold, you should be able to take more than five steps a minute!** Not to scale?** Steep, switchbacks, tons of branches and rocks hiding under the dirt to grab at careless ankles...?* How is it that Jean Armstrong (The pink-loving chef from 3-3) is able to confuses people [[DudeLooksLikeALady about his gender]], with even the judge asking if he's male or female, yet nobody is confused by Ron [=DeLite=]? Jean is very clearly a guy. His body and face (And facial hair) are very obviously male, he just dresses weird. Ron was far more [[ViewerGenderConfusion effeminate-looking]] than Jean was.** Ron doesn't do anything that calls his gender into question.** They might not be sure whether or not Armstrong is transgendered and identifies as female.*** When Armstrong talks about himself, he jumps around between masculine and feminine descriptives (at one point, he refers to himself as a "pert and perky gentleman" and another time calls himself a "coquette," a term reserved for women). It supports the transgender theory, but even if he wasn't, his inconsistent descriptives certainly wouldn't help anything.** There ''are'' bearded ladies and really buff ladies that can sometimes confuse a person.* Case 3-5: Once [[spoiler:Dahlia Hawthorne]] realises that [[spoiler:she's being channeled by Maya]], why doesn't [[spoiler:she attempt suicide]]? After all, we hear over and over again that [[spoiler:her objective is to kill Maya]]. Admittedly, it appears that [[spoiler:she's in denial over it for a while]] and [[spoiler:she IS in a court room]], but we already know that [[spoiler:she's a master of hiding her true nature]] and [[spoiler:it wouldn't be the first time someone has fled from, or died on, the witness stand]].** [[spoiler:I believe it was stated at some point (case 2-2?) that a medium usually takes precautions to prevent the spirit from harming its channeler. Also, Dahlia didn't have any weapon or poison at hand with which to kill herself. As for the Terry and young Phoenix incidents, they happened years ago, and presumably court security was tightened up as a response.]] Also, wouldn't killing herself be against her nature?** [[spoiler: I don't think Dahlia has prepared ''anything'' to kill herself with, and there aren't many things that can be used as aids to suicide in a courtroom. The moment she tries to seize a weapon, security will just pin her down (that's what they're trained to do). Given that, what's she gonna do? Grab a pen and stab herself? Get 1000 papercuts? Bang her head on the stand repeatedly and very, ''very'' strongly?]]** She could've just run out of the damn room and jumped off the roof. After all, [[spoiler: Dahlia repeatedly said she didn't care what would happen to herself, as she was already dead]].*** No, she could have attempted to run out of the damn room and been tackled to the ground by the bailiff, Phoenix, or any number of people between the courtroom and the roof. It's ''really hard'' to kill yourself in a room full of people, especially a room full of people who ''are all watching you''.*** And this is precisely the reason (well, one of the reasons) why [[spoiler:Godot put her on the stand and forced Phoenix to reveal her identity.]] He must have known who she was from his first conversation that morning, but if he revealed it at the wrong time, she might realize who was channeling her and kill herself. By [[spoiler:putting her on the stand]], he could alert the bailiffs to jump her if she tried to do something unexpected.* Also Case 3-5: If Godot [[spoiler:wanted to protect Maya]], why didn't he just [[spoiler: destroy Morgan's instructions so that Pearls would never find them in the first place]]?** Because Godot's desires were not as altruistic as he made himself believe. [[spoiler: He didn't just want to protect her, he wanted to ''save'' her, like he felt he had failed to do for Mia. And he couldn't do that if she wasn't in danger in the first place. He admitted as such. He even admitted the best thing he could have done was to simply tell Phoenix, who was almost always by her side, and the whole debacle would never have happened.]]** There is such a thing as Hero Syndrome.* A timing issue from 3-5: [[spoiler:What woke Larry up? The lightning strike on the bridge. He claims he sketched exactly what he saw at that moment (the sketch is presented upside down because he was lying on his back at the time). Yet the sketch shows the body swinging under the bridge... so the body was swinging the moment lightning struck the bridge?]]** The lightning woke him up, and he watched the fire for a while before he saw [[spoiler:the body swinging under the bridge]].*** '''''[[color:red:OBJECTION!]]''''' ::pointing:: That directly contradicts the witness' testimony that [[spoiler:he sketched exactly what he saw at the moment]]! Further... ::slams desk:: [[spoiler:he would have no reason to continue to lie on his back after waking up]]! This means... ::speed lines, ThemeMusicPowerUp:: [[spoiler:the picture would not have been upside down]]!!*** '''''[[color:red:HOLD IT!]]''''' Why wouldn't he [[spoiler:be laying down on his back]]? If he had just woken up, and he was [[spoiler:content with his position, then why would he move]]? Especially if he was [[spoiler:in awe of the burning bridge]]? In addition, [[spoiler:the body swinging under the bridge]] wouldn't take much time to complete at all, even if he didn't need time to take it all in! What we have here is simple; he did [[spoiler:sketch exactly what he saw at that moment]]. That moment was while he gazed in awe, and [[spoiler:saw a body swinging under a bridge]] - while he was laying on his back! Then he grabbed his sketching tools, and completed the sketch, long after that moment had passed!*** '''''[[color:red:HOLD IT!]]''''' Have '''you''' tried [[spoiler:laying on your back with your head tilted back like that]]? It's a pain in the neck... quite literally! There's no way he would have stayed that way!*** '''''[[color:red:HOLD IT!]]''''' Who says that he sketched it in that position? It would be perfectly reasonable if he sat up, sketched, then [[spoiler:went back down briefly]] to look again!*** '''''[[color:red:HOLD IT!]]''''' Larry is an idiot. Logic does not apply to him. He might very well have stayed in that position.*** The lightning roused Larry from a deep sleep, he craned his neck to see what was going on for a few moments as the bridge was going up in flames, and he snapped awake when he saw what appeared to be a [[spoiler: person flying]], immediately sat up, and sketched the sketch. Not only is it incredibly easy to assume that Larry has misrepresented or inadequately explained his testimony due to having just woke up (and being Larry), it's not that hard to think of a dozen ways those events could have occurred that match his testimony as-is.*** '''''HOLD IT!''''' If it were a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundersnow thundersnow]], there were probably ''several'' lightning strikes with associated thunder. He woke up at one of the earlier strikes and just happened to be looking outside to see the bolt that struck the bridge.* In "Recipe For Turnabout", how exactly did Viola manage to [[spoiler: impersonate Maggey? Even if Kudo saw her from behind, wouldn't he notice her bandages]]?** My assumption is the big bow. There's a big pink bow that goes on the back of Maggey's head when she wears her uniform, and if Viola was correctly impersonating her, maybe the bow would obscure the bandages? Besides, Kudo wasn't looking above her hips, anyway. Phoenix's cross-examination reveals as much.

* 3-5. Godot makes ''absolutely no reaction'' to Mia showing up in Pearl's body. Whut.** Presumably the same reason Franziska needed a photograph of Mia being channeled in 2-2, despite the fact that Mia was ''currently being channeled'' on the other side of the room. It seems that the rest of the court don't notice your partner unless she speaks to them first... Note that your partner often makes incredibly incriminating remarks, but nobody ever hears them.*** Except that Mia does [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTTdG7Y9Mrc#t=4m58s immediately and directly address the court at that point]]. She and Godot even [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olSDXIDRUQ4#t=4m49s exchange words]]. Godot obviously acknowledges her presence, and yet he doesn't completely freak out there (unlike later, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWfcWHOJXpQ#t=0m11s when he kind of does]]).*** He and Mia acknowledge each other, yes -- and then the very next thing he does, as that clip shows, is tell Phoenix that from here out Phoenix has to do it all himself, no beautiful women jumping in to save the day. This is likely as much a message to Mia to let her protege prove himself as it is to Phoenix. And indeed, she does -- and he freaks out because he sees her ''in'' him, or parallel to him, in the form she had when he knew her (her rookie lawyer outfit and hairstyle), not just giving him counsel from the side while being channeled. At that point he sees the LiteralMetaphor that she ''does'' live on in him, or at least her brand of wholehearted belief in the clients does. When he shows that he can do it on his own, without prompting, Godot realizes how wrong he's been and this shakes him to the core... and damn, this troper just teared up for the first time thinking about it.** Considering that there is both documented evidence of a medium changing appearance while channeling ''and'' precedence for people thinking that channeling is a hoax, it's likely that by now Kurain mediums have something of a reputation for somehow creating believable illusions of the deceased. Godot may have believed that he was seeing a very good impersonation of Mia rather than Mia herself.*** Except, the last case kind of revolves around him believing the Kurain Channeling Technique's power.** Godot had a somewhat surprised reaction to Mia being channeled through Maya in 3-2. He likely had gotten over his shock at the idea of her spirit being channeled by the time of 3-5.** It's possible that Mia told Godot about the Kurain Channeling Technique [[spoiler:back when they were both defense attorneys]]. If he already knew what was going on, it'd make sense that he'd take it in stride once he got used to it. And after all, this is the guy who [[spoiler:showed no hints that he'd been ''stabbed in the face'']], so it's not impossible that he ''was'' having a strong emotional reaction, but managing to hide it.

* At the end of Case 4 of ''Trials and Tribulations'', [[spoiler:Terry Fawles commits suicide via poison]]. ''Who in their right mind'' would let a convicted murderer on Death Row keep [[spoiler:a necklace with a bottle on it]] without first checking [[spoiler:the contents]]? Also, how could everyone in the courtroom miss seeing him [[spoiler:take off the necklace, open the bottle, and pour it into the coffee Armando gave him before he drank it]]?** He didn't keep the necklace for all of those years. Terry states that he went to retrieve it from the 'special place' where he and [[spoiler: Dahlia]] promised never to betray one another, on the day of the crime. It's clearly been there for the past five years. *** Still, one has to wonder why they didn't confiscate it when they recaptured him.

* 3-4: Valerie Hawthorne's age is given as 23. Much attention is given to a then five-year-old incident in which Valerie, as a detective, played a significant role... but [[ImprobableAge she would have been 18 at the time!?]] For that matter, 23 is pretty young to be a detective!** This bugged me too. I kind of figured that age is but a number in ''PW'' and doesn't affect anyone's profession or skill level. For example, Franziska became a prosecutor at age 13, Pearl is an incredible channeler at only age 8, etc.

* In game three, case five, [[spoiler: how is it that exorcism occurs in the middle of a public trial and no-one thinks it worthy of comment? I know Nick is surprised at how comfortable the Judge seems with it all, but what of the spectators? Aren't they disturbed? The existence of ghosts and the afterlife has been proven before their very eyes, for goodness' sake!]]** The second case of game 2 [[spoiler: treats the Kurain Channeling Technique as an established fact, presumably everyone already knows that ghosts exist (of course this then puts Edgeworth into Main/FlatEarthAtheist territory with his initial disbelief)]]** But Bikini mentions that the Kurain Technique was viewed with suspicion after Misty's failure, and that Kurain is failing financially as a result, or something.** It is possible that everyone in that trial was simply SO amazed by what they saw that they were stunned speechless. ** I'll go with the last one. If I were to see that in person in a trial that's already holding so much unusual facts, I'd just go O_O for a while.** There's nothing to say the spectators didn't freak out, but both attorneys and the judge were already familiar with the reality of ghosts and as long as they just kept going no one would've been able to really ask questions.* I know Phoenix isn't the nicest guy in the game, and I know Gumshoe can annoy him somewhat, but what was his problem during Gumshoe's introduction? In 2-4, [[spoiler: Gumshoe was a big help in gathering evidence to help find Maya]]. How does Phoenix introduce him in 3-2? "Oh no! Not him again!" What the hell?** I can really understand Phoenix in this regard. Gumshoe, while adorable and a rather nice person, is usually trying to gather evidence against your client, witholds information and isn't all that bright. It got better over the games, as Gumshoe warmed up to Phoenix, but Nick would probably have prefered a more competent detective on the case.** This bugs me too. Gumshoe ''constantly'' proves himself to be a remarkable asset, whether it's providing useful exposition on the case and suspects, providing evidence, providing information regarding the evidence, etc. On two separate occasions, he risks life and limb to save Phoenix and Maya from mobsters, allowing them to escape with vital evidence. He supplies tools like the metal detector that [[spoiler: was ultimately Von Karma's undoing]]. He even risks (and loses) his badge to get Phoenix the evidence that ultimately puts away [[spoiler: Damon Gant]]. Gumshoe is an extremely valuable asset, without whom Phoenix would not have been able to win a ''lot'' of his cases, and yet everyone in the game, Phoenix included, treats Gumshoe as a worthless joke who can't do anything right. What the hell?*** Valuable != competent or a joy to work with. If Phoenix was really hard up for clues and Gumshoe's on the scene, Fuck Yeah! I know that guy! Let's go pester him until he spills confidential info! But, just showing up in his day-to-day life, maybe he's not the most enjoyable or useful person on Earth. Just like how Phoenix still thinks of Larry as a friend through the end of game 3, but we all totally get why he's not a welcome surprise when we see him at the temple.

* In 3-3, how the hell did [[spoiler:Furio Tigre]] manage to trick the entire court room into believing that [[spoiler:he was Phoenix]]? I mean, I can understand how Maggey might have been fooled, since she [[spoiler:only met Phoenix once before]], and it's possible that Payne noticed it but decided not to say anything about it because he couldn't pass up a chance to stroke his ego with an easy victory. But the judge had [[spoiler:seen Phoenix]] on multiple occasions over the past three years! Are you going to sit there and tell me that he sat through the whole trial without noticing that [[spoiler:"Phoenix" now had bright orange skin, a thick Brooklyn accent, a nasty temper, and, to top it all off, a ''fake paper badge'']]?** What's important about the series of events preceding 3-3 is that they serve to communicate that, to the other characters, [[spoiler:the only truly memorable thing about Phoenix is his spiky AnimeHair]]. Beyond that, I'd say that the Judge was so cowed by [[spoiler:Furio]] that he wasn't really willing to question him. Also take into account that the Judge is pretty old and the relative distance involved -- it's possible that, be it from his poor eyesight or from that distance, he couldn't tell that [[spoiler:the badge was fake]]. It's actually more unsettling that ''Maggey'' didn't notice, given the physical proximity that she would have had. Remember that in her first appearance [[spoiler:she pretty much idolized Phoenix for getting her off the hook]], and it's not too hard to imagine that she would be rather familiar with [[spoiler:Phoenix's behaviour]] through her correspondence with Gumshoe. She's the one who would have been the ''least'' likely to be fooled, and with her gung-ho attitude and police experience it's hard to believe that she was simply too scared of [[spoiler:Furio]] to call him out.** It's specifically mentioned by Maggey on at least one dialog path that everyone in the trial had question marks over their heads, but nobody quite dared speak up. That [[spoiler:Furio]] was so intimidating may have contributed to this - it's a harsher edge than Phoenix's usual bluster, but honestly, it's not like Phoenix himself is above pressuring witnesses to get his way. In fact, it's a core mechanic. He just usually doesn't do it to the other courtroom figures (the judge and prosecutor).** It's entirely possible that Maggey is a bit of an idiot (remember, she's like a female Gumshoe, not too bright) and took [[spoiler: Furio]] at his word. Besides, [[spoiler: Furio]] may be a better actor than we give him credit for.** He went on vacation and got a tan. His badge got a tan, too.* According to case 3-5, the in game court system has no problem letting the defendant in the case testify that somebody else committed the crime in another location which was, at the time, not accessible from the location the body was found at.** Most of Phoenix's rebuttal to that testimony ''is'' proving that it wasn't accessible. After all, the defendant claimed to witness the murder itself. [[spoiler:In fact, the fact that she didn't know that it wasn't accessible is key to the reveal.]]* Here's another one for 3-2: The last thing you have to trick [[spoiler: Atmey]] into mentioning is the fact that [[spoiler: Ron was wearing his Mask☆[=DeMasque=] costume]], since it hadn't been mentioned in the time he was there, which, the game would have us believe, meant that he couldn't have known [[spoiler: Ron was wearing it]]. Why is this a major plot point when [[spoiler: Luke]] ''obviously'' would have visited [[spoiler: Ron in the detention center]] (if for no other reason than to preserve [[spoiler: his 'Ace Detective' facade]])? He could have just looked at [[spoiler: Ron]] and found that out! I apologize if I'm missing something obvious, but it's [[TitleDrop just bugging me]].** Just because [[spoiler:Ron was wearing the outfit when he surrendered himself to the police, it doesn't mean that he wore it when the murder occured]]. So even if [[spoiler:Atmey vistied Ron]] in jail, there was no way he could have known what was worn at the time of the crime.

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* In 3-3, how the hell did [[spoiler:Furio Tigre]] manage to trick the entire court room into believing that [[spoiler:he was Phoenix]]? I mean, I can understand how Maggey might have been fooled, since she [[spoiler:only met Phoenix once before]], and it's possible that Payne noticed it but decided not to say anything about it because he couldn't pass up a chance to stroke his ego with an easy victory. But the judge had [[spoiler:seen Phoenix]] on multiple occasions over the past three years! Are you going to sit there and tell me that he sat through the whole trial without noticing that [[spoiler:"Phoenix" now had bright orange skin, a thick Brooklyn accent, a nasty temper, and, to top it all off, a ''fake paper badge'']]?** What's important about the series of events preceding 3-3 is that they serve to communicate that, to the other characters, [[spoiler:the only truly memorable thing about Phoenix is his spiky AnimeHair]]. Beyond that, I'd say that the Judge was so cowed by [[spoiler:Furio]] that he wasn't really willing to question him. Also take into account that the Judge is pretty old and the relative distance involved -- it's possible that, be it from his poor eyesight or from that distance, he couldn't tell that [[spoiler:the badge was fake]]. It's actually more unsettling that ''Maggey'' didn't notice, given the physical proximity that she would have had. Remember that in her first appearance [[spoiler:she pretty much idolized Phoenix for getting her off the hook]], and it's not too hard to imagine that she would be rather familiar with [[spoiler:Phoenix's behaviour]] through her correspondence with Gumshoe. She's the one who would have been the ''least'' likely to be fooled, and with her gung-ho attitude and police experience it's hard to believe that she was simply too scared of [[spoiler:Furio]] to call him out.** It's specifically mentioned by Maggey on at least one dialog path that everyone in the trial had question marks over their heads, but nobody quite dared speak up. That [[spoiler:Furio]] was so intimidating may have contributed to this - it's a harsher edge than Phoenix's usual bluster, but honestly, it's not like Phoenix himself is above pressuring witnesses to get his way. In fact, it's a core mechanic. He just usually doesn't do it to the other courtroom figures (the judge and prosecutor).** It's entirely possible that Maggey is a bit of an idiot (remember, she's like a female Gumshoe, not too bright) and took [[spoiler: Furio]] at his word. Besides, [[spoiler: Furio]] may be a better actor than we give him credit for.** He went on vacation and got a tan. His badge got a tan, too.* According to case 3-5, the in game court system has no problem letting the defendant in the case testify that somebody else committed the crime in another location which was, at the time, not accessible from the location the body was found at.** Most of Phoenix's rebuttal to that testimony ''is'' proving that it wasn't accessible. After all, the defendant claimed to witness the murder itself. [[spoiler:In fact, the fact that she didn't know that it wasn't accessible is key to the reveal.]]* Here's another one for 3-2: The last thing you have to trick [[spoiler: Atmey]] into mentioning is the fact that [[spoiler: Ron was wearing his Mask☆[=DeMasque=] costume]], since it hadn't been mentioned in the time he was there, which, the game would have us believe, meant that he couldn't have known [[spoiler: Ron was wearing it]]. Why is this a major plot point when [[spoiler: Luke]] ''obviously'' would have visited [[spoiler: Ron in the detention center]] (if for no other reason than to preserve [[spoiler: his 'Ace Detective' facade]])? He could have just looked at [[spoiler: Ron]] and found that out! I apologize if I'm missing something obvious, but it's [[TitleDrop just bugging me]].but...** Just because [[spoiler:Ron was wearing the outfit when he surrendered himself to the police, it doesn't mean that he wore it when the murder occured]]. So even if [[spoiler:Atmey vistied visited Ron]] in jail, there was no way he could have known what was worn at the time of the crime.

* At the end of the first trial day in 3-2, the Sacred Urn turns up again, and its presence and fingerprints are used as decisive evidence to clear Ron's name. It looks odd, though, and immediately after the trial ends and more twists ensue, Pearl's first suggestion is to have it checked at Kurain Village, and everyone acknowledges that it doesn't look like it did in the exhibit ad. While the actual circumstances turn out to be less sinister and it turns out to be the same urn after all, you have to wonder: did Phoenix knowingly clear his client's name using evidence that he suspected was forged? Considering how later games establish this to be a Very Bad Thing...** I doubt Phoenix consciously did such a thing. He was probably too caught up in the moment to even notice it looked different during the trial.* Luke Atmey's plan does not make much sense. He wanted to avoid [[spoiler: being found guilty of murdering Kane Bullard]] because of the punishment he would receive, so, he was planning to [[spoiler: be found guilty of being Mask☆[=DeMasque=] instead]] because the punishment would be lighter. However, Kane Bullard's list of the things Mask☆[=DeMasque=] stole are: The Tear Of Emanon (a jewel), which costs $100.000, The Crown of Bongora, which costs $150.000, The left hand of Hades (a sculpture), which costs $240.000, and the painting of Mejeena, which costs $500.000. This means that [[spoiler: he would have been found guilty of stealing $990.000, which would still warrant a decades long prison sentence, if not life]] how exactly would he have been a KarmaHoudini?** Because being [[spoiler: convicted of being Mask☆[=DeMasque=]]] was his back-up plan, to be activated in case the primary plan, [[spoiler: framing Ron [=DeLite=] for Bullard's murder]], didn't work out. Also, because being popular is something Atmey likes, and it could be worth it being convicted of being a popular jewel thief. Doubly so if it means [[spoiler: being impossible to convict of being a murderer.]]*** Well, with so many valuable items, he would still be risking a LongerThanLifeSentence for those thefts, which, to the OP's point, [[PyrrhicVictory kind of defeats the whole purpose of the "backup plan"]]; all he'd dodge is the Chair. And once he got a taste of prison life, he would probably have rather had the Chair...

[[AC:Case 3-3]]* Case 3-3 involves an unplanned murder - [[spoiler:Furio Tigre didn't expect Glen to win the lottery and back out of the deal. He only manages to avoid suspicion by reenacting the crime and planting evidence on an unconscious Maggey.]] So what exactly would the murderer have done had [[spoiler:Maggey not fainted and simply called the police? Or what if Maggey hadn't passed out for an hour, and instead woke up before or during the reenactment?]] Seems like a pretty flimsy plan to me . . . .** It's probable that [[spoiler:Viola]] can be called in as witness, as a witness to the scene when the killing happened, and [[spoiler:Jean was also in the plan, so there's no witness to support Maggey]]. For [[spoiler:Maggey waking up]], well, if I remember correctly, [[spoiler:she was carried out]]. It would still be an flimsy plan, though.** On a related note, can anyone genuinely picture [[spoiler:Furio slipping poison into someone's drink unnoticed? I mean, he's the anthropomorphic personification of intimidation! His impersonation of Phoenix consisted of yelling at and threatening everyone. His attempts to throw suspicion off himself in court consisted of yelling at and threatening everyone. He doesn't strike me as the calm, subtle type at all! Now, see, if ''Viola'' had slipped it in there...]]*** Considering [[spoiler:how intimidating he is]], it's not entirely likely that the victim would have been looking him in the eye... or even at his body.*** If you look at intro, you can see that Elg was indeed facing away from the killer when he poisoned the coffee.* How is it that Jean Armstrong (The pink-loving chef from 3-3) is able to confuses people [[DudeLooksLikeALady about his gender]], with even the judge asking if he's male or female, yet nobody is confused by Ron [=DeLite=]? Jean is very clearly a guy. His body and face (And facial hair) are very obviously male, he just dresses weird. Ron was far more [[ViewerGenderConfusion effeminate-looking]] than Jean was.** Ron doesn't do anything that calls his gender into question.** They might not be sure whether or not Armstrong is transgendered and identifies as female.*** When Armstrong talks about himself, he jumps around between masculine and feminine descriptives (at one point, he refers to himself as a "pert and perky gentleman" and another time calls himself a "coquette," a term reserved for women). It supports the transgender theory, but even if he wasn't, his inconsistent descriptives certainly wouldn't help anything.** There ''are'' bearded ladies and really buff ladies that can sometimes confuse a person.* In "Recipe For Turnabout", how exactly did [[spoiler: Viola manage to impersonate Maggey? Even if Kudo saw her from behind, wouldn't he notice her bandages]]?** My assumption is the big bow. There's a big pink bow that goes on the back of Maggey's head when she wears her uniform, and if Viola was correctly impersonating her, maybe the bow would obscure the bandages? Besides, Kudo wasn't looking above her hips, anyway. Phoenix's cross-examination reveals as much.* In 3-3, how the hell did [[spoiler:Furio Tigre]] manage to trick the entire court room into believing that he was Phoenix? I mean, I can understand how Maggey might have been fooled, since she only met Phoenix once before, and it's possible that Payne noticed it but decided not to say anything about it because he couldn't pass up a chance to stroke his ego with an easy victory. But the judge had seen Phoenix on multiple occasions over the past three years! Are you going to sit there and tell me that he sat through the whole trial without noticing that [[spoiler:"Phoenix" now had bright orange skin, a thick Brooklyn accent, a nasty temper, and, to top it all off, a ''fake paper badge'']]?** What's important about the series of events preceding 3-3 is that they serve to communicate that, to the other characters, [[spoiler:the only truly memorable thing about Phoenix is his spiky AnimeHair]]. Beyond that, I'd say that the Judge was so cowed by the imposter that he wasn't really willing to question him. Also take into account that the Judge is pretty old and the relative distance involved -- it's possible that, be it from his poor eyesight or from that distance, he couldn't tell that [[spoiler:the badge was fake]]. It's actually more unsettling that ''Maggey'' didn't notice, given the physical proximity that she would have had. Remember that in her first appearance [[spoiler:she pretty much idolized Phoenix for getting her off the hook]], and it's not too hard to imagine that she would be rather familiar with Phoenix's behaviour through her correspondence with Gumshoe. She's the one who would have been the ''least'' likely to be fooled, and with her gung-ho attitude and police experience it's hard to believe that she was simply too scared of the imposter to call him out.*** It would've been more believable if the Blonde Judge was the one that tried Maggey just before 3-3; he wouldn't have been as familiar.** It's specifically mentioned by Maggey on at least one dialog path that everyone in the trial had question marks over their heads, but nobody quite dared speak up. That the imposter was so intimidating may have contributed to this - it's a harsher edge than Phoenix's usual bluster, but honestly, it's not like Phoenix himself is above pressuring witnesses to get his way. In fact, it's a core mechanic. He just usually doesn't do it to the other courtroom figures (the judge and prosecutor).** It's entirely possible that Maggey is a bit of an idiot (remember, she's like a female Gumshoe, not too bright) and took the imposter at his word; he may be a better actor than we give him credit for, too.** [[spoiler:He went on vacation and got a tan. His badge got a tan, too.]]

* In the final case of T&T, why did Phoenix decide to defend Iris? At the time, [[spoiler: he didn't know Dahlia had a twin: Iris. For all he knew, he was defending Dahlia who, most likely, escaped from prison.]]** It is implied heavily from Phoenix at many points that he is still in love with her. Also she constantly states that she has sins she wants to banish from herself so it's likely that Phoenix just remembered his love for her and decided to believe in her.** You two need to refresh your memory. EDGEWORTH decided to defend Iris on the condition that she tell Phoenix the truth.*** While that is true, Phoenix would not have given Miles his badge unless he wanted him to use it.*** The last Phoenix saw of Iris was five Psyche-Locks, he wanted to protect her til he got the truth out of her. And he had reason [[spoiler: to believe she wasn't Dahlia because none came up for going to his university.]]** Remember what Phoenix said after reviewing case file for 3-4. "That's not the Dahlia i know". Phoenix never really believed that Dahlia could be evil, even after she tried to kill him. When he met a girl who both looked ''and'' acted like the Dahlia he fell in love with it's obvious he believed in her, ''especially'' when she knew him.

* Why did Godot try to [[spoiler: frame Iris]] in the fifth case? [[spoiler: Yeah, Iris agreed to get framed willingly, but Godot's whole goal was to protect Mia's family, right? Plus Iris is younger than him, healthier than him, female (which would presumably matter if his chauvinism is accompanied by chivalry, as is implied), etc. Is Godot really so selfish that he has to have her take the fall for what he did (which is exactly like what Dahlia did)? What makes matters worse is that it is implied that Iris agreed to take the blame because she was afraid Maya would get blamed otherwise, which would mean that she thought Godot would actually be willing to frame the very person he was trying to protect. It would be pretty crazy to kill Misty in order to protect Maya only to have Maya executed in order to protect himself! It could be argued that Godot was angry with Iris for her role in protecting Dahlia, but if he trusted her enough to enlist her help, he must have known that her goal is to protect her family. I guess maybe Godot thought that he needed to stay alive to protect Maya again if Morgan kept trying to kill her? Or maybe he thought Iris was going down anyway because of how Bikini saw Iris desecrate Misty's body?]]** [[spoiler: In retrospect, at no time did Godot ever say that Iris killed Elise/Misty. He never really pushes for a guilty verdict in court (though the game still gives you one if you run out of "health"). He spends a large portion of the time in court trying to force Phoenix to present better arguments about why Maya is innocent. He doesn't ever seem to want to say who did it or even attempt to suggest that Iris did. He still admitted that the plan called for Iris to "take the fall" if they couldn't keep track of Pearl, though.]]** Keep in mind that it's possible Godot knows [[spoiler:that Iris was, to some degree, involved in her sister's evil activities. If that's the case, it'd make sense that he wouldn't particularly mind if she took the fall for the crime. It would seem the sort of rationale he'd follow, that it'd be a fitting punishment for her letting Dahlia poison and murder people, and put him in a coma.]]** Given that Godot hated Dahlia so much that he was prepared to risk Misty's OR Pearl's life to take a stab on that long-dead person... Perhaps he has a subconscious dislike of Iris just because she looks exactly like Dahlia? As such, her life would be of the least concern to him, especially considering her own willingness to sacrifice herself in the name of Godot's self-righteousness. Although it does show that Godot, for all his championing of the "men must protect women" cause, apparently was fine with making an exception for a girl he didn't particularly care about to protect his own hide. However, one must not forget that the main part of the case against Iris was carried out by Franziska von Karma, - ironically, Godot was mostly prosecuting against the very same Maya he was trying to save.** It's worse than irony. [[spoiler:Godot was willing to frame Iris in order to protect Maya. And then "Iris" claims that Maya did it... and he agrees with that assertion?]] At that point, the only rational explanation for his actions in court is "he'd do anything to defeat Trite". Interesting how both prosecutors in that case are motivated primarily by their personal rivalry with the defense.* Why didn't Elise or Iris [[spoiler: tell Phoenix, Maya, Pearl, or Bikini about the plot to kill Maya?]]** They probably thought that they could stop it on their own and it wasn't very clever to worry anyone for nothing. [[spoiler: Plus, Elise could be worried about revealing her identity to Phoenix or Maya.]]** Plus, the plan on the whole is being masterminded by [[spoiler: Godot, who for his own personal reasons would have insisted Phoenix and, by proxy, Maya, who'll just blab it all out to him, be kept out of the loop. Presumably, Iris and Elise trusted him, and therefore believed him to have a better justification for this then he ultimately turned out to.]]** I'll explain my reasoning for each character:*** Bikini: Misty DID tell her actually. Not in the details, but she did tell her that someone is trying to take down the main family line. That would be enough to get her to cooperate and if they decided that they need her for something, they'd just need to ask without going into details of Morgan's plan itself.*** Pearl: Why would they think that a child would listen to two random women over her own mother? Remember that neither Iris nor Misty knew Pearl prior to the plan, they didn't know if she was tricked of helping her willingly, or how was she convinced. Don't forget that Pearl trusted Morgan, they had no reason to believe that she'd believe them.*** Phoenix: Misty didn't know anything about him except for being Maya's friend. Iris knew him better, but still, neither had any reason to think that he believes in channelling, for all they knew he was there just to humor his friend. Like Iris said when talking with Edgeworth most people don't believe in spiritual powers, and without knowing how does chanelling work explaining things to him would be pointless. Additionally until they came to Hazakura they had no way of contacting him. When they were there "Elise" was already Pearl's BFF, so they had every reason to believe that situation is under control.*** Another Troper re: Phoenix: Did you see what he did when he found out that Maya was in danger? Had the plan been revealed to Phoenix, there were fair odds that he'd turn the party home ''that very instant''. Whatever Godot's motives were, Trite would have thrown a SpannerInTheWorks that Godot didn't want to account for.*** Maya: I wouldn't be sure that they didn't tell her actually. When Mia was chanelled for advice she told her what to do before Pearl channels Dahlia, but in order to knew that she'd have to know about Morgan's plot. Maya herself had to know about Dahlia to channel her and it was too dark to see anything, she didn't see who attacked her. Given how Maya's actions after the attack were specifically to counter Morgan's plot i suspect that Iris DID in fact tell her, probably some time between dinner and her talk with Phoenix.* At the end of case 3-1, Phoenix says that he wants to become a lawyer in order to save his friend (or something to that effect). If he's talking about Larry, how did he predict three years in advance that Larry would be accused of murder? Or had Larry already been accused and somehow put off his trial for three years so that Phoenix could defend him?** He's talking about Edgeworth. The first game details his efforts to change him.*** So he became an attorney in order to save Edgeworth from being like Manfred von Karma?*** In a nutshell, Phoenix mentions in the first game that what pushed him to become an attorney was hearing all of the media coverage of Edgeworth's success as a prosecutor. Facing him in the courtroom was the only chance he felt he had to confront Edgeworth about becoming a ruthless prosecutor instead of a defence attorney like his father.*** But he also says to Mia in the very first case of the first game, before even entering the courtroom, that ''Larry'' is one of the reasons he became a lawyer. Edgeworth's reputation and refusal to communicate with Phoenix was probably what pushed him into making the final decision to study law on the side, but he says it's because of both of them that he decides to become a defense attorney. So probably he'd been at least considering it since that classroom "trial", perhaps also because of Edgeworth's shining image of his own father.*** One of the reasons he became a lawyer was a class trial. Larry supported Edge in saying that Phoenix is innocent and that's what sparkled friendship between the three of them. So yes Larry is still one of the reasons(although he still did it to confront Edge)

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* Why did Godot try to [[spoiler: frame Iris]] in the fifth case? [[spoiler: Yeah, Iris agreed to get framed willingly, but Godot's whole goal was to protect Mia's family, right? Plus Iris is younger than him, healthier than him, female (which would presumably matter if his chauvinism is accompanied by chivalry, as is implied), etc. Is Godot really so selfish Case 3-3 reveals that he has [[spoiler:an accident with Furio Tigre's scooter colliding with Viola Cadavarini's car somehow caused enough physical damage to have her take Viola to warrant a $1,000,000 surgical procedure. I'm not saying it's impossible but going by the fall for what he did (which is exactly like what Dahlia did)? What makes matters worse is image shown during the case, she plowed into him and she ends up receiving the brunt of the damage...from hitting a ''scooter with a luxury car''? Tigre's scooter isn't even that badly mangled by it is implied that Iris agreed to take the blame because she was afraid Maya would get blamed otherwise, which would mean that she thought Godot would actually be willing to frame the very person he was trying to protect. It would be pretty crazy to kill Misty in order to protect Maya only to have Maya executed in order to protect himself! It could be argued that Godot was angry with Iris for her role in protecting Dahlia, (it has some dings but if he trusted her it runs okay enough to enlist her help, he must have known that her goal is to protect her family. I guess maybe Godot thought that he needed to stay alive to protect Maya again if Morgan kept trying to kill her? Or maybe he thought Iris was going down anyway because of how Bikini saw Iris desecrate Misty's body?]]** [[spoiler: In retrospect, at no time did Godot ever say that Iris killed Elise/Misty. He never really pushes for a guilty verdict in court (though the game still gives you one if you run out of "health"). He spends a large portion of the time in court trying to force Phoenix to present better arguments about why Maya is innocent. He doesn't ever seem to want to say who did it or even attempt to suggest that Iris did. He still admitted that the plan called for Iris to "take the fall" if they couldn't keep track of Pearl, though.get him around regardless).]]** Keep in mind that it's possible Godot knows [[spoiler:that Iris was, to some degree, involved in I suppose it depends on how fast they were both driving. Assuming [[spoiler:Tigre was speeding (which isn't unlikely, given his personality), then crashing into Viola's car could conceivably both knock him backwards and cause her sister's evil activities. If that's the case, it'd make sense a significant amount of damage]].** After hitting [[spoiler:Furio, Viola]] may have panicked, and swerved her car into a tree, wall, or other such obstruction.** [[spoiler:Wall of meat that he wouldn't particularly mind if she took is, Tigre could have definitely suffered just as much potential damage as Viola and simply walked it off. The $1,000,000 surgery might have been fluffed up a bit because the fall for the crime. It would seem the sort mob wanted to make use of rationale he'd follow, that it'd be a fitting punishment for her letting Dahlia poison and murder people, and put him in a coma.Furio.]]** Given that Godot hated Dahlia so much that he was prepared to risk Misty's OR Pearl's life to take a stab on that long-dead person... Perhaps he * In case 3-3 (Recipe for Turnabout), the prosecution's argument for what Maggey's, motive is has a subconscious dislike of Iris just because giant hole: The theory was that her motive was to steal the winning lotto ticket. But why would she looks exactly like Dahlia? As such, her life have the poison in the first place? There was absolutely no way of knowing ahead of time that the guy with the winning lotto ticket would be of the least concern to him, especially considering her own willingness to sacrifice herself in the name of Godot's self-righteousness. Although it does show restaurant on that Godot, exact day, and I think it's safe to assume that she doesn't carry it around all the time, and I doubt a restaurant would just leave a deadly poison sitting around.** The prosecution wanted to paint Maggey as a murderer. It sounds ridiculous, since we already know that Maggey's not the murderous type, but they might assumed that Maggey was carrying around poison just in case she finds a victim she can gain something from. It's a bad theory, but this is the same place we got the whole 'she wants to murder him for all his championing of lottery ticket!' thing from. ** Since when Payne is a good prosecutor? Any lawyer worth his salt would've shown that argument is flimsy, but the "men must protect women" cause, apparently lawyer in this case was fine with ''trying'' to lose and making an exception for a girl he didn't particularly care about to protect his own hide. However, one must not forget that the main part of the case against Iris was carried out by Franziska von Karma, - ironically, Godot was mostly prosecuting against the very same Maya he was trying to save.** It's worse appeal is harder than irony. [[spoiler:Godot was willing to frame Iris in order to protect Maya. And then "Iris" claims that Maya did it... and he agrees with that assertion?]] At that point, just defending the only rational explanation for his actions in court is "he'd do anything to defeat Trite". Interesting how both prosecutors in that case are motivated primarily by their personal rivalry case.* In the third case, there's a few problems I have with the defense.* circumstances of Tigre's "debt collection" from Glen. Why didn't Elise or Iris [[spoiler: tell Phoenix, Maya, Pearl, or Bikini about Tigre just ask Glen for the plot virus CD, and explain to kill Maya?]]** They probably thought him his situation? I understand that they could stop it on their own the virus was illegal, and it wasn't very clever to worry anyone for nothing. [[spoiler: Plus, Elise could be worried about revealing her identity to Phoenix or Maya.]]** Plus, so he was excited when he won the plan $500,000 on the whole is being masterminded by [[spoiler: Godot, who for his own personal reasons would have insisted Phoenix and, by proxy, Maya, who'll just blab lottery because he could pay it all out to him, be kept out of the loop. with clean money. Presumably, Iris and Elise trusted him, and therefore believed him to handing over the virus was his last resort. However, couldn't Tigre have just gone, "Look, I actually owe a better justification violent criminal $1,000,000 and I need to get it now, or I'm as good as dead. I really need that CD, it'll literally save my life. I can sell it for this then he ultimately turned out to.]]** the money I need. So if you give me the CD, I'll explain my reasoning for each character:*** Bikini: Misty DID tell her actually. Not in consider your debts paid, you'll get to keep your clean lotto' money, and I won't die. Everyone will be happy".** It is entirely possible Tigre could have said that. However, Glen Elg is a programmer, so he knows good and well the details, but she did tell her kind of damage that someone is trying something like his MC Bomber virus could do. So Elg may well have simply said "No." And that's not a word Tigre wanted to take down hear.*** Elg created the main family line. That virus himself, and was willing to hand it over to Tigre knowing the damage that he could do with it. I think this establishes Elg as an AssholeVictim. Keeping that in mind, if he was already going to hand it over to save his own life, who's to say he would not still hand it over to save himself 100 grand? Saving yourself 100 grand might not be enough to get her to cooperate and if they decided as important as saving your life (it isn't), but an unsympathetic cad like Elg might still make that they need her for something, they'd just need to ask without going into details of Morgan's plan itself.*** Pearl: Why deal.** Does asking nicely ''really'' look like something Tiger would they do?*** To save himself from needing to murder a guy, yes. Its not about "asking nicely", it's about other options that were there for Tigre besides "well he's won the lottery, I've gotta murder him now". Elg suddenly winning the lottery doesn't mean Tigre couldn't have gotten the CD if he had the common sense to just ask for it to be the payment, instead of the lottery money. *** And what makes you think that he gives a child would listen to two random women over her own mother? Remember that neither Iris nor Misty knew Pearl prior to the plan, they crap whether Elg lives or dies? Don't forget, Tiger didn't know if she was tricked of helping her willingly, or how was she convinced. Don't forget that Pearl trusted Morgan, they had no reason to believe that she'd believe them.*** Phoenix: Misty didn't know anything about him except for being Maya's friend. Iris knew him better, but still, neither had any reason to think that just grab whatever he believes could get a hold of, and murdered Elg in channelling, for all they knew anger. He used cyanide, which means he must've brought it with him. Whcih means he was there just at least prepared to humor his friend. Like Iris said when talking with Edgeworth most people don't believe in spiritual powers, and without knowing how does chanelling work explaining things to him would be pointless. Additionally until they came to Hazakura they had no way of contacting him. When they were there "Elise" was already Pearl's BFF, so they had every reason to believe that situation is under control.*** Another Troper re: Phoenix: Did you see what he did when he found out that Maya was in danger? Had kill Elg from the plan been revealed to Phoenix, there were fair odds that he'd turn the party home ''that very instant''. Whatever Godot's motives were, Trite would have thrown a SpannerInTheWorks that Godot start. There is exacly one character Tiger is nice towards: Viola. And only because he didn't want to get on her grandpa's bad side. Maybe trying to convince Elg to give him the virus would've been possible if Elg listened, but it would certainly require more compassion than Tiger is capable of.*** Lack of compassion and apathy over people's lives is one thing, but that doesn't mean you'd be willing to murder someone and risk going to jail for it if you can help it. They were in a public place, where murdering someone is flat out dangerous to do. Yes the restaurant was empty besides those two at the time, but customers could've waltzed in at any minute. Plus covering up the murder and having it be a successful as it was relied on a lot of luck on Tigre's part. There happened to only be one waitress, who happened to faint, and later on only one customer happened to come into the restaurant who happened to be a senile old man, who happened to have a waitress fetish. There's no way Tigre could've realistically seen the cover up going as well as it did, and there's no reason for him to risk so much when he could've just spoken seven words and went "I want the CD as payment instead". Elg could've said no, sure, but there was a big chance he'd say yes, which could've saved Tigre a lot of luck-based effort on a halve-arsed cover-up.*** How big chance? The reason Tiger wanted the virus was because it was worth far more than what Elg owed him. From selfish standpoint Elg has no reason to give him the virus once he has the money. If he keeps the virus he keeps his hands clean and can potentailly sell it himself to gain far more than he would've if he handed it over. From selfless standpoint the virus is really dangerous and while Elg was desperate enough to make it as a payup, he might not ba ''happy'' about virus getting out. And if Tiger needs money because of what was his own damn fault why should Elg care? Tiger owning money to Bruto was Tiger's problem, Elg isn't charity. And why would even Elg assume that Tiger is telling the truth and not just making bulshit up to get the virus? And finally taking all of the above into account for.why would Tiger think Elg would listen, even if he asked nicely? *** Maya: I You keep avoiding the point, which is that Tigre had other options open to him other then "murder Elg". This isn't about compassion or niceness. Even they were likely to even work or not, it was stupidly rash of Tigre to jump straight to murder instead of at least trying something else. *** Because Tiger IS rash. He's TheAsshole, who works by intimidating everyone around him, and the only reason he was ever nice to anyone was because said anyone was MafiaPrincess with TheDreaded grandfather who would've killed him if he wasn't. When Tiger met Elg he had cyanide ready, that means he was ready to kill him from the start. And you keep asking why wouldn't someone like that ''ask nicely'' when such thing would be insanely out of character for him. Tiger was confident that he'd get away with the murder and he almost did. If Dick didn't go to Phoenix he would have. Why ''would'' he search for other options? Especially one that would require more niceness than he's capable of towards someone who isn't scarier than him? * During the first recess in 3-3, Maggey suddenly declares that she loathes Gumshoe's guts because he didn't openly declare on the stand that he believed her to be innocent. Even leaving aside the fact that Gumshoe had previously been rebuked plenty of times (and even threatened with wage deductions) by Edgeworth and both von Karmas for interjecting his own opinions while on the witness stand, did she forget that the only reason she was even able to get a retrial in the first place was because Gumshoe ''didn't'' believe she could be a murderer? Or does she genuinely believe that Gumshoe is such a sadistic asshole that he'd get her a retrial just so that he could personally watch her be declared guilty again?** Did Phoenix actually ''tell'' her that Dick was the one who asked him to defend her? For all she knew it was Phoenix trying to help her, she might not have known about Dick's involvement.*** I'm pretty sure it would've come up in conversation at some point. Phoenix knows Gumshoe has a thing for Maggey, so I can't imagine he wouldn't have brought it up. Even still, if she did think that Phoenix did it himself, Maggey should have had the common sense, especially as a former policewoman, to know that Gumshoe was just doing his job and didn't exactly have much choice. The way she got upset at Gumshoe honestly came across as extremely selfish to me.** The larger problem here is that, in 2-1, Gumshoe did pretty much the same thing when testifying and Maggey merely took it as Gumshoe being dumb. Then again, after being in jail for a month, she probably TookALevelInJerkass.

[[AC:Case 3-4]]* In 3-4, while Phoenix is in the hospital, how does he know that Dahlia has come back if he hasn't gotten out yet?** Two possibilities. 1: He heard about it on the news or through a correspondent. 2: He doesn't, and he is only saying as much because he can feel it in his gut. ** The answer is just that Phoenix knows there's a woman that looks '''a lot''' like Dahlia and knows him from somewhere despite denying that she attended the same university as him. Not only that - [[spoiler:he didn't know Dahlia was hanged until Edgeworth told him late in the second day of investigation in 3-5]]. For all Phoenix knew, it looked like Dahlia was back and had dyed her hair black. Pay attention to his reaction upon [[spoiler:seeing Iris in the newspaper article Pearl brought]] at the start of 3-5, and it makes more sense.* In 3-4, why is the obvious contradiction that [[spoiler: The people on the bridge are facing each other, there is no way the defendant could push her down]] not able to be pointed out?** Because people can move. It's not difficult to assume that the victim had turned around at some point.* At the end of Case 4 of ''Trials and Tribulations'', [[spoiler:Terry Fawles commits suicide via poison]]. ''Who in their right mind'' would let a convicted murderer on Death Row keep [[spoiler:a necklace with a bottle on it]] without first checking [[spoiler:the contents]]? Also, how could everyone in the courtroom miss seeing him [[spoiler:take off the necklace, open the bottle, and pour it into the coffee Armando gave him before he drank it]]?** He didn't keep the necklace for all of those years. Terry states that he went to retrieve it from the 'special place' where he and [[spoiler: Dahlia]] promised never to betray one another, on the day of the crime. It's clearly been there for the past five years. *** Still, one has to wonder why they didn't tell her actually. When Mia was chanelled for advice confiscate it when they recaptured him.* 3-4: Valerie Hawthorne's age is given as 23. Much attention is given to a then five-year-old incident in which Valerie, as a detective, played a significant role... but [[ImprobableAge she told her what to do before Pearl channels Dahlia, but in order to knew that she'd have to know about Morgan's plot. Maya herself had to know about Dahlia to channel her and it was too dark to see anything, she didn't see who attacked her. Given how Maya's actions after the attack were specifically to counter Morgan's plot i suspect that Iris DID in fact tell her, probably some time between dinner and her talk with Phoenix.* At the end of case 3-1, Phoenix says that he wants to become a lawyer in order to save his friend (or something to that effect). If he's talking about Larry, how did he predict three years in advance that Larry would be accused of murder? Or had Larry already have been accused and somehow put off his trial for three years so 18 at the time!?]] For that Phoenix could defend him?matter, 23 is pretty young to be a detective!** He's talking about Edgeworth. The first game details his efforts to change him.*** So he This bugged me too. I kind of figured that age is but a number in ''PW'' and doesn't affect anyone's profession or skill level. For example, Franziska became an attorney in order to save Edgeworth from being like Manfred von Karma?*** In a nutshell, Phoenix mentions in the first game that what pushed him to become an attorney was hearing all of the media coverage of Edgeworth's success as a prosecutor. Facing him in the courtroom was the only chance he felt he had to confront Edgeworth about becoming a ruthless prosecutor instead of a defence attorney like his father.*** But he also says to Mia in the very first case of the first game, before even entering the courtroom, that ''Larry'' at age 13, Pearl is one of the reasons he became a lawyer. Edgeworth's reputation and refusal to communicate with Phoenix was probably what pushed him into making the final decision to study law on the side, but he says it's because of both of them that he decides to become a defense attorney. So probably he'd been an incredible channeler at least considering it since that classroom "trial", perhaps also because of Edgeworth's shining image of his own father.*** One of the reasons he became a lawyer was a class trial. Larry supported Edge in saying that Phoenix is innocent and that's what sparkled friendship between the three of them. So yes Larry is still one of the reasons(although he still did it to confront Edge)only age 8, etc.

* The Shichishito was bent in case 2, so why wasn't it bent later? Did some kind of metal smith fix it?** Getting a single kink out of a (relatively) straight metal rod is easier than you might think, especially if they took it to an expert. Considering that about four months pass between Cases 3-2 and 3-5, it doesn't really seem all that surprising that they managed to repair the damage completely.** IIRC, if you present the bent Shichishito to Adrian in 3-2 she offers to fix it, in considerable distress.

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* The Shichishito How was bent Terry Fawles able to afford to hire Grossberg's law firm?** Grossberg and the rest of the firm had nothing to do with it; it was ''just'' Mia, a greenhorn who happened to take a personal interest in the case. Presumably she took it pro-bono or at least at a reduced rate, and Diego tagged along as co-council for, well, obvious reasons. Grossberg himself may not even have heard about the case 2, so why wasn't it bent later? Did some kind of metal smith fix it?** Getting a single kink out of a (relatively) straight metal rod is easier than you might think, in particular detail until after the fact.* What exactly was Terry Fawles [[spoiler: hired to tutor Dahlia in, especially if they took it to an expert. Considering with his mental condition? I understand that about four months pass between Cases 3-2 and 3-5, it doesn't if Mr. Hawthorne hired him, he probably wouldn't have really seem all that surprising that cared to give the man a background check, but it's still strange.]] ** She was probably just lying about that, and they managed to repair the damage completely.** IIRC, if you present the bent Shichishito to Adrian in 3-2 she offers to fix it, in considerable distress.met through other (probably more suspicious) means. Especially considering [[spoiler: Dahlia didn't even mention they were dating at all.]]

* Iris repeatedly states that she's lived at Hazakura temple for as long as she remembers. However, [[spoiler: Dahlia implies that their father didn't leave Kurain until after DL-6. He certainly didn't, by her story, leave until after Misty became Master, which is said to be three years before DL-6. Iris would have been 8 when DL-6 happened.]] How could Iris not remember anything prior to age 8?** The most probable explanation? She's lying. After all, given everything we can guess about her father and all we ''know'' about her mother, it's likely that Iris simply doesn't '''want''' to remember [[spoiler: life before Hazakura]].*** Iris says that she's always been at Hazakura during conversations in which it is logical to think that the other conversant is using the Magatama. The Magatama must be in [[spoiler: "Luke Atmey saying that Mask [=DeMasque=] hit him over the head counts as an unlock"]] mode every time she says that... or else she doesn't consider that statement to be concealing a secret.*** That's what I would argue, both in this situation and in [[spoiler: Atmey's]]. The Magatama doesn't detect falsehoods so much as it detects the deliberate act of ''concealment''; if a person doesn't consider themselves to be lying (either because they interpret Phoenix's wording differently then he does, i.e. [[spoiler: Engarde]], they are concealing a second falsehood behind the first ''as if'' it was the truth, i.e. [[spoiler: Atmey]], or they are applying something akin to {{Doublethink}} and may to some degree ''believe'' their own story, i.e. Iris), then the Magatama won't pick up on it.** Also, Iris is, what, 25 now? She's still lived at Hazakura Temple for about 17 years, well over half her life. While that doesn't ''fully'' explain it, the Magatama may have just accepted that as close enough to work.*** [[spoiler:Though one would have to assume that there were certain gaps in that stretch, seeing as how she impersonated her sister for a prolonged period of time.]]** Iris never said that she doesn't remember her life prior to Hazakura. She said she doesn't remember ''when'' did she first came to Hazakura. whcih considering that it happened when she was 8 it's not really a stretch. She remembers that she's been at Hazakura since she was a child, but can't pinpoint the time.* Speaking of Iris and the Magatama, Edgeworth breaks her "psycholock" on the first day to figure out why she never went to the temple by figuring out that she was scared to go because of Larry's "blackmail letter". Indeed, Larry repeatedly testifies during the first trial day that before the incident, he spent the night waiting for Iris, but she never showed. But then on the second day, [[spoiler:we learn that Iris was in on the entire plan and not only had a valid reason to not go to the Inner Temple, but did in fact head to Dusky Bridge to move a dead body during the time that Larry was waiting for her. We can accept that Larry both took some time to get to the bridge and was more interested in drawing the flying body than noticing a nearby Iris (even though he thought the body was Iris), but what about the Magatama?]]** Iris was telling the truth. She stayed in her room [[ExactWords until the murder happened]]. But the murder happened about half an hour earlier than everyone thought it did. We don't know what was exactly the plan or what Godot told her it was. We don't know if she was supposed to go there according to plan. Considering that some creppy stalker apparently knew about her and Phoenix and was threatening to break his heart it's no wonder that Iris wasn't exacly fond of the idea of going there until the murder happened and she ''had'' to go.* In case 3-1 why is Mia so surprised when she learns Doug couldn't have been hit by lightning? Did she forget who was at the witness stand?** Mia appears to have taken the case based solely on hearing that Dahlia was involved. She doesn't appear to have figured very many things out before entering the courtroom. When she first went into the courtroom, she didn't know exactly what had happened and had no way of being sure of who or what did it. She's basically like Phoenix himself when he first started out, i.e. greenhorn.** Also, IIRC, the way the whole hit-by-lightning thing happened, it seemed (to me, at least) that Mia was just saying it to buy herself some time. Besides, although that turned out to be wrong, she still figured that Dahlia was up to something, so it's possible that she was going to say something like Dahlia pushed Doug towards the lightning (although that would have made for a flimsy argument).** Because even if Mia took the case for revenge she was still a defence attorney and her primary job was to make sure that Phoenix won't be found guilty. Lightning would've won her case had it happened.* What exactly was Iris's role in the [[spoiler: Dusky Bridge fake kidnapping]] supposed to be? Supposedly she [[spoiler: got scared and ran away, and supposedly this "betrayal" led to problems for Dahlia]]. What exactly was she expected to do?** Most likely, to provide some sort of escape route. If she had done her part, presumably [[spoiler: Dahlia would not have had to jump in the river and risk her life (and the diamond) to get out of there alive.]]** Or perhaps she was supposed to [[spoiler: pull a TwinSwitch with her, leaving Dahlia free to run off as somebody else with the gem]].* How was Terry Fawles able to afford to hire Grossberg's law firm?** Grossberg and the rest of the firm had nothing to do with it; it was ''just'' Mia, a greenhorn who happened to take a personal interest in the case. Presumably she took it pro-bono or at least at a reduced rate, and Diego tagged along as co-council for, well, obvious reasons. Grossberg himself may not even have heard about the case in particular detail until after the fact.* Case 3-5: Even considering light sources, it's surprising that someone attacking someone else with a weapon could [[spoiler:strike him in exactly one place, and have it be the one place that is covered with protective metal, in such a manner that he doesn't even need to adjust it to cover up the wound later]].** FridgeBrilliance: Because it was dark Dahlia could only see the visor, so that's where she struck.* It's related to an above entry about DL-6, but why doesn't Phoenix Wright point out that [[spoiler:Gregory Edgeworth didn't see his actual murderer]] when Edgeworth claims Misty was a fraud? Phoenix already proved that [[spoiler:Gregory was unconscious at the time of his death]]. It could very well have disproven the basis of Edgeworth's disbelief in spirit channeling, and proven [[spoiler:that Dahlia was in fact connected to the case despite being dead]].** Maybe because they were in the middle of a completely different case and both were too busy to be discussing the past?*** From a {{Watsonian}} standpoint, I agree. From a ''Doylist'', standpoint, though, it would be the ''perfect'' time to bring that point up, if for no other reason that this was supposed to be the GrandFinale, and Grand Finales are the best place to clean up loose plot threads and resolving character arcs; in this case, [[AgentScully Edgeworth]] being a FlatEarthAtheist about Kurian Channeling.* Case 3-5 is one giant AssPull. The murder [[spoiler: of Maya]] could not have been planned. A) [[spoiler: Morgan was imprisoned for ''a year'' before this case happened]]. B) She also most likely had no contact to [[spoiler: Dahlia or Iris]], probably not even knowing that [[spoiler: Dahlia was even imprisoned]]. And C) [[spoiler: Dahlia said that the whole plan of using her death and having her spirit channeled was not conceived until ''one or two months prior'' to this case]]. So there's no way that thing could've been in the Kurain Village, let alone with the proper instructions in it.** Even if Morgan had no direct contact with [[spoiler: Dahlia and Iris]], it's always possible that she learned of [[spoiler:Dahlia's imprisonment]] through the news. Since [[spoiler:Dahlia]] has been involved in so many crimes by now, all of which take place prior to 2-2, it's possible (though a bit of a stretch, yes) that Morgan just ''assumed'' she would cooperate, since obviously [[spoiler:Dahlia has no problem committing other crimes. Also, Morgan may have thought that, although she doesn't give a crap about her kids, Dahlia might still be willing to help out her mom]]. Also, maybe Dahlia just meant that [[spoiler:Morgan only told her about the plan then, but already had come up with it earlier]].** I don't remember things exactly at the moment, but isn't it mentioned that Morgan hid the letter to Pearl in the Fey Manor before she was arrested? Which would mean she came up with the plan around the end of 2-2 (which would mean that her threats at the end of that case weren't just vague threats, and that she already had the backup plan to set in motion). ** Actually, B) is dealt with directly [[spoiler:when Dahlia testifies in 3-5: she says it was easy for her and Morgan to talk to each other because they were held in the same detention center, Morgan was her mother, and Dahlia was on death row. The implication was that the prison staff let them spend time together out of deference to the fact that they would be permanently separated soon]].* Why couldn't [[spoiler:Misty Fey]], ''the master of the Kurain Channeling Technique, [[spoiler: exorcise or control Dahlia's spirit and stop her from killing Maya? Presumably she has more control over the spirit's actions then, say, Maya and Pearl would. Not to mention she wouldn't have died. Okay, I understand why she wouldn't be able to exorcise her, because then Pearl would have probably channeled her, but still...]]** [[spoiler: First, because it has not been established that such a thing is possible, even by the master of the Kurain Channeling Technique. Conversely, it's been repeatedly established that when a person channels a spirit, they disappear and the spirit completely takes over. Misty would not have been conscious when Dahlia was in her body, and consciousness is a requirement for just about anything a person could do to defend themselves from anything. Secondly, even if Misty did somehow have the ability to banish Dahlia from her body, as you pointed out, Pearl would have just been possessed instead; then either Pearl would murder Maya, or Maya (or Godot) would be forced to kill Pearl. As a loving mother, neither of these outcomes would be acceptable to Misty.]]*** It's still stated or at least highly implied that [[spoiler:skilled mediums have at least some degree of control over spirits they channel. Yes, outright exorcising Dahlia out of Misty would have been a bad idea due to the risk for Pearl... However, perhaps OP meant why couldn't the Kurain Master at least have enough control to prevent her from attacking Maya? Though this is one of the most inconsistent rules of the Kurain chanelling technique, so I can see how the writers perhaps just forgot about it...]]*** Stated and implied is one thing, but it's never ''shown''. This is one of those situations of "Dialogue is not gospel". When the characters say x, but what we see with our own eyes is y, then we must assume that y is the truth, and that the characters saying x are wrong. We have never actually witnessed [[spoiler: a spirit channeling that was anything other than the standard "medium disappears, spirit takes over completely" channeling that Maya and Pearl do with Mia all the time. Even Misty, who SHOULD have been able to override her possessing spirit if anyone is capable of doing so.]] Until we see evidence to the contrary, the only remaining assumption is that [[spoiler: the Kurain Channelers' claims of being able to control their channels]] is nothing more than empty boasting.** Or maybe [[spoiler:Dahlia's ghost]] was just ''that'' strongly driven by sheer hatred that [[spoiler:she managed to resist Misty's attempts]]. ** Aside from being named the Master, do we have any reason to believe Misty even that good at channeling? The title is passed by blood, not skill level. Since her daughters aren't that powerful, maybe we can assume she wasn't either. That's also one more reason for Morgan to be upset she got the title.*** Except it was ''Morgan'' who was the elder claimant that turned out to be a MuggleBornOfMages; Misty wouldn't have gotten the title unless Morgan had failed to show proficiency. Had Misty ''also'' failed, the House would have transferred to a cousin of Morgan & Misty's.** Also, it's been established that mediums' powers become weaker if they don't undergo spiritual training. Since Misty left Kurain Village 17 years ago, her powers could simply be rusty.* In 3-2, Phoenix says that Godot is the "most dangerous man he's ever faced in court", or something along those lines. Phoenix had only known him for a few hours, and the most Godot did was throw coffee at Phoenix. Sure, Godot has a deep, bitter dislike for Phoenix that Phoenix didn't know about, but why would Phoenix think that? Franziska was also after him, and used a whip. Plus, there's Manfred von Karma (world-class prosecutor, among other things), [[spoiler: Matt Engarde, and de Killer, both of whom put Maya in danger.]] Really, why would Phoenix act as if Godot was his most dangerous foe?** Simple answer: hyperbole. Complicated answer: He obviously knows that Godot has it in for him, and he's just assuming that Godot has more tricks up his sleeves in the future. Not a perfect answer, but it does make some sense.** It's his personality. Edgeworth, Franziska, even Manfred von Karma to an extent all behaved like prosecutors; while they were varying degrees of corrupt, they respected the courtroom and behaved in a courtly fashion. Manfred was dangerous because he would do anything to win a conviction, but that also made him understandable to an extent. Phoenix could look at him and know, "This is what that man is, and what he is capable of." Edgeworth and Franziska were similar; as children of Manfred (one more literally than the other), they weren't hard to identify and understand who they are, where they come from, and how far they'll go. Godot is different. He's a complete mystery. He doesn't act like a prosecutor, he's always grinning like a jackal, and even when he's just lost his case, he ''acts'' like he won. Phoenix has no idea who this man is, where he came from, or why he has such a violent ''grudge'' against him. Von Karma was a devil, but he was a devil that Phoenix could see quite clearly from the moment he met him. Godot is a mystery wrapped up in malice that came out of nowhere, seems to have no history or point of origin, and is capable of ''anything'' because of it.** In addition to the above, Godot successfully manipulated Phoenix in a way none of the prosecutors or killers had before. A von Karma might get his client found guilty and beat him that way, but when Phoenix had that thought, it was because he thought Godot had tricked him into ''proving his own client was the murderer.''* When Larry arrives in 3-2, Phoenix says he has known Larry for 25. Is this a typo? Or was it meant to be interpretted as, "I've known him my whole life?" It's just strange, as Phoenix had never mentioned knowing Larry before the Classroom Trial. (Then again, I guess maybe they knew each other through their parents or something, but saying they had known each other since they were infants would be strange.)** It was probably just supposed to mean "We've known each other for a really long time." Also, while it's unlikely they met each other as infants, they ''did'' go to the same school, so it's possible that they saw each other around school a lot before actually becoming friends.* What exactly was Terry Fawles [[spoiler: hired to tutor Dahlia in, especially with his mental condition? I understand that if Mr. Hawthorne hired him, he probably wouldn't have really cared to give the man a background check, but it's still strange.]] ** She was probably just lying about that, and they met through other (probably more suspicious) means. Especially considering [[spoiler: Dahlia didn't even mention they were dating at all.]]* If I remember [[spoiler: Dahlia's]] testimony correctly in case 3-5, [[spoiler: she claimed that, after she was stabbed by Maya, she was the one who used her own blood to scribble "MAYA" on the stone lantern, which she was currently backed up against]]. Despite the fact that this was a lie in one aspect, there is physical evidence to support that [[spoiler: Dahlia wrote "MAYA" on the stone lantern]]. HOWEVER, what really happened was that [[spoiler: it was MAYA whose back was up against the stone lantern, and Dahlia was facing up against Maya when she was stabbed in the back by Godot. Not only was Maya not stabbed at all, but even if she HAD been, why would she write her own name on the lantern?]] While both these events are backed up by evidence to have actually happened, the two events contradict each other!** Ooh, nice one. We also can't justify it as going back later, as [[spoiler:the writing was there before Dahlia got free two days later]].*** Yeah, that's a good contradiction. After all, [[spoiler: Dahlia had a sword sticking out of her back, so it wasn't like she could put her back against the lantern. Plus, Maya was already against the lantern, so it was extremely difficult for Dahlia to have written it]].** Maya did pass out, so it's likely that she [[spoiler:fell away from the lantern when she collapsed. So that would explain why the section the message was written on wasn't blocked by Maya]]. As for the contradiction in [[spoiler:where they stood, it's possible Dahlia remembered it wrong. She herself admitted that her memory of around that time wasn't clear, and she was being forced away as the body she was in was dying from blood loss.]] Not entire sure how to explain [[spoiler:the message being upside-down, though.]]*** Given that Maya passed out, it's not too much of a stretch to go on and assume that [[spoiler: Dahlia stumbled away from Godot and ended up by the lantern as Maya was falling down]]. A bit contrived, yes, but not totally implausible.** This is easy to explain; here's the sequence of events: 1) Dahlia is facing Maya, who is backed against the lantern. 2) Dahlia gets stabbed from behind by Godot. 3) Dahlia ''turns around'' to slice Godot's face with her knife. She is now facing Godot, so her back is to Maya and the stone lantern. 4) Maya passes out and falls to the ground. 5) Dahlia stumbles ''backwards'' against the stone lantern. Dahlia is now leaning with her back (or rather, the top of Misty's staff) to the lantern. 6) With her left hand flat against the stone slab, her fingers pointing down and her palm against the stone, she writes Maya's name. It's upside down because moving her fingers "up", away from her palm moves them downwards.* Case 3-3 reveals that [[spoiler:an accident with Furio Tigre's scooter colliding with Viola Cadavarini's car somehow caused enough physical damage to Viola to warrant a $1,000,000 surgical procedure. I'm not saying it's impossible but going by the image shown during the case, she plowed into him and she ends up receiving the brunt of the damage...from hitting a]] ''scooter with a luxury car''? Tigre's scooter isn't even that badly mangled by it (it has some dings but it runs okay enough to get him around regardless).** I suppose it depends on how fast they were both driving. Assuming Tigre was speeding (which isn't unlikely, given his personality), then [[spoiler: crashing into Viola's car could conceivably both knock him backwards and cause her a significant amount of damage]].** After hitting Furio, Viola may have panicked, and swerved her car into a tree, wall, or other such obstruction.** Wall of meat that he is, Tigre could have definitely suffered just as much potential damage as Viola and simply walked it off. The [[spoiler:$1,000,000 surgery]] might have been fluffed up a bit because the mob wanted to make use of Furio.* [[spoiler:Okay, fine. Godot and Misty and Iris were determined to not let anyone know about the plot to kill Maya. But why didn't Misty just lock herself in a room and ''then'' channel Dahlia? Regardless of what Godot told her, I can't imagine that it could have come off as a better plan than "lock my body up where it cannot be used to harm my daughter". As soon as Godot told Misty about the plan, Misty could have just found somewhere ''on the other side of the country'' to lock herself away and then channel Dahlia. Hell, if she wanted to make it as simple as possible, she could have just had Godot or Iris tie her to a post before channelling. There, problem solved. Dahlia can't hurt Maya ''or'' Misty and Pearl can't channel her lunatic half-sister. I get that Godot want to ''save'' Maya, but Misty only cared about ''protecting'' her daughter. So why didn't she do the one thing that would have guaranteed Maya's safety? Even if you assume that her entire plan was to distract Pearl and that was derailed by Pearl not showing up to read with her, it's not like it would have been hard to find some rope and say "Hey, Iris, plan's gone to shit, so be a dear and tie me to this tree."]] Honestly, the actions of most of the people involved in that truth of that case make zero sense to me.** [[spoiler:Misty channeled Dahlia as a last-ditch plan. She was out looking for Pearl (since obviously keeping Dahlia from being channeled at all would be best) and, when it became apparent that time was running out and Pearl couldn't be found and stopped, she resorted to doing the channeling herself. As for why she didn't ask Iris to tie her up, Iris was elsewhere, doing jobs for the temple. Most likely Misty was out in the woods with no one else around when she had to get to it. As for why she didn't think to just do it ahead of time, well, no one knows precisely how much Godot told the women. He could have somehow pitched it to them in a way that made it sound like their plan was the best to go with.]]* At the end of the first trial day in 3-2, the Sacred Urn turns up again, and its presence and fingerprints are used as decisive evidence to clear Ron's name. It looks odd, though, and immediately after the trial ends and more twists ensue, Pearl's first suggestion is to have it checked at Kurain Village, and everyone acknowledges that it doesn't look like it did in the exhibit ad. While the actual circumstances turn out to be less sinister and it turns out to be the same urn after all, you have to wonder: did Phoenix knowingly clear his client's name using evidence that he suspected was forged? Considering how later games establish this to be a Very Bad Thing...** I doubt Phoenix consciously did such a thing. He was probably too caught up in the moment to even notice it looked different during the trial.* The mistery of Case 3-5 is finally solved when Phoenix proves [[spoiler:Godot was wounded by Dahlia's dagger and he hid his wound behind his mask]]. But how did that happen? [[spoiler:Dahlia was focused on killing Maya so she may have never noticed Godot, her testimony implies that 'she' was stabbed and that's it, no mention of a struggle at all, and Godot is 30cm taller according to the game manual (Dahlia and Maya are at about the same height) so leaving a wound in his face without doing so deliberately does not seem likely]].** Because [[spoiler:she did mean to do it. It's stated clearly in the case that Dahlia had already had the sword stabbed into her by the time she turned around the sliced Godot across the face. She was just stabbed from behind, so she turned around and attacked back at her killer. Makes perfect sense to me.]][[/folder]]

%%Note: This is a separate folder because, if you stick everything into one, it breaks the folder.[[folder: ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations'', Section 2]]

* In case 3-3 (Recipe for Turnabout), the prosecution's argument for what Maggey's, motive is has a giant hole: The theory was that her motive was to steal the winning lotto ticket. But why would she have the poison in the first place? There was absolutely no way of knowing ahead of time that the guy with the winning lotto ticket would be in the restaurant on that exact day, and I think it's safe to assume that she doesn't carry it around all the time, and I doubt a restaurant would just leave a deadly poison sitting around.** The prosecution wanted to paint Maggey as a murderer. It sounds ridiculous, since we already know that Maggey's not the murderous type, but they might assumed that Maggey was carrying around poison just in case she finds a victim she can gain something from. It's a bad theory, but this is the same place we got the whole 'she wants to murder him for his lottery ticket!' thing from. ** Since when Payne is a good prosecutor? Any lawyer worth his salt would've shown that argument is flimsy, but the lawyer in this case was ''trying'' to lose and making an appeal is harder than just defending the case.* A question I have in regards to the fanbase, rather than the game itself- where do the accusations of sexism on Godot's part come from? I mean, I know that he isn't the greatest person in the world, but I never noticed any signs of considering women beneath him. I mean, there was that incident with Franziska, but that just reeks of DoubleStandard if that's where people are coming from- he says that he hates women like her, but this is a woman who routinely throws fits resulting in the whipping of anyone nearby, sometimes into unconsciousness. On top of that, she routinely victimizes men (outside of Justice for All) (and even there, she still does it, she just includes women as well) and yet many of these occasions are on the CrowningMomentOfFunny page. So, [[UnfortunateImplications woman routinely abusing men=funny, man calling her out on it=awful chauvinist?]] Aside from that, there's the accusation that he considered Mia too frail to defend herself, which is so ridiculous I didn't even know about it until I read about it on this very page. As I said in response to that, his guilt over Mia's death is survivor's guilt, more than anything, which has nothing to do with sex. He certainly never refers to her as though he thought she was incapable of defending herself- to the best of my memory. I'm not defending Godot as a character, as he's very divisive to me (mostly due to 3-5) but seriously, where are these accusations of sexism coming from?** A lot of it also comes from 3-4, where he repeatedly refers to her as words like "tiger" and "kitten" in the courtroom, generally speaks to her in a condescending tone, and on several occasions suggests that she's not qualified to stand as defense on her own. It's not hard to see his words as demeaning, and I've seen at least one Let's Play group tear into him for it during a blind run.*** Ah. Well, that makes some more sense. It's certainly a better explanation than either of the ones I mentioned before, which, believe it or not, I ''have'' heard people argue. I can definitely see where that would come across as sexist. I mean, it didn't seem that way to me, more like an affectionate nickname than anything, but then again, that's what YMMV is for.*** If you look at how Diego uses his commentary to Mia, and how she responds to it, I see it much more as him being condescending to her as a way of getting her to fight back. He usually calls her "kitten" and such when she's letting Edgeworth dictate the pace of the trial or if she's otherwise being timid. And every time, it pisses her off and she puts her game face back on. Furthermore, notice that, as Mia becomes accustomed to fighting in court, Diego backs off on calling her these things.*** Diego's attitude towards Mia could just be part of his generally smug personality rather than sexism.** Also, worth noting that Godot acts rather condescending towards Dessie in case 3-2, too. The wording of his comments was something along the lines of her being a good wife and swooping in to save her husband, which could easily be read as her "[[UnfortunateImplications knowing her place]]" if you're not especially charitable.*** Now that's just looking for offense for the sake of it. How does trying to save your husband, or vice-versa, ''not'' make either person a good spouse? It's not like Godot was saying she should stay in the kitchen and make Ron a sandwich, he just made a comment that highlighted her doing what any human with normal emotions would do in that situation, that is trying to get her beloved life partner cleared of a murder implication.... maybe by any means necessary. ** I recall during that case he made some remarks towards Ron that he wasn't a "real man" because of his more timid and effeminate character, although I don't recall them specifically enough to say if that was truly the case. But that's the only thing that stuck out to me as sexist at the time. I think overall it's what you say, people looking for offense for the sake of it. Nearly all of Godot's "sexist" moments can individually be explained as not being motivated by sexism, but because he has quite a few of them, and people might have reasons not to read him too charitably, lots of people in the fanbase ignore the other explanations. Might also be some kind of stereotyping, since he's Hispanic (Latino?) and stereotypes exist of Hispanics being more hypermasculine and chauvinist. Not that I've looked around in the fandom, generally.** While I can understand people disagreeing on Godot being sexist, Franziska ''really'' is not a good counterpoint. The fact her victims are mostly men is just because the cast of Ace Attorney is mostly men, the reason for her violent outbursts is all but directly stated to be because she's emotionally stunted and socially inept, and the reason most people view it as funny more than anything is because the game plays those moments for comedy. Because Franziska is a character with every dial cranked up to eleven where Godot is meant to be read with more nuance the fandom reading similar actions differently isn't a sexist double-standard, it's the actions themselves meaning different things in different contexts.* Luke Atmey's plan does not make much sense. He wanted to avoid [[spoiler: being found guilty of murdering Kane Bullard]] because of the punishment he would receive, so, he was planning to [[spoiler: be found guilty of being Mask☆[=DeMasque=] instead]] because the punishment would be lighter. However, Kane Bullard's list of the things Mask☆[=DeMasque=] stole are: The Tear Of Emanon (a jewel), which costs $100.000, The Crown of Bongora, which costs $150.000, The left hand of Hades (a sculpture), which costs $240.000, and the painting of Mejeena, which costs $500.000. This means that [[spoiler: he would have been found guilty of stealing $990.000, which would still warrant a decades long prison sentence, if not life]] how exactly would he have been a KarmaHoudini?** Because being [[spoiler: convicted of being Mask☆[=DeMasque=]]] was his back-up plan, to be activated in case the primary plan, [[spoiler: framing Ron [=DeLite=] for Bullard's murder]], didn't work out. Also, because being popular is something Atmey likes, and it could be worth it being convicted of being a popular jewel thief. Doubly so if it means [[spoiler: being impossible to convict of being a murderer.]]*** Well, with so many valuable items, he would still be risking a LongerThanLifeSentence for those thefts, which, to the OP's point, [[PyrrhicVictory kind of defeats the whole purpose of the "backup plan"]]; all he'd dodge is the Chair. And once he got a taste of prison life, he would probably have rather had the Chair... * Why do so many people think that [[spoiler: Godot died]]? Sure, he was stabbed in the face, but I am pretty sure he would have been taken to the hospital for that. He also would not get the death penalty. While he did [[spoiler: kill Misty]], that was mostly Dahlia's fault. It was done partly in defense of another. At most, he would be charged with reckless endangerment and withholding information from the police. A few years in prison, not a death sentence. As for the poison, he drank that five years ago. It lost it's effects a long time ago and would not be affecting his health anymore.** Obviously the poison did some real damage to him. His [[spoiler: eyesight is proof enough that it got to his brain]] and people don't exactly go into a coma for 5 years and start tap-dancing once they wake up. At the end of the final court-day he'd also spent 2 days in near-Arctic conditions without proper shelter and probably missing some medical treatment for the aforementioned coma. The sketch shown at the end of the case also shows him next to Mia and [[spoiler: Elise/Misty]] instead of in the second sketch with Phoenix, Maya, Pearl, Gumshoe, Edgeworth, and Franziska. It's never stated outright and you can handwave all this if you want, but the implication is he died of medical complications shortly after the last trial.** Also, as someone way above me on this page liked to point out, there's no such thing as premeditated defense of another. What he did falls somewhere between murder in the second degree or voluntary manslaughter, so he'd probably get a death sentence anyway.*** The death sentence is only given for first degree murder.*** In the real world, yeah. But ''Ace Attorney'''s universe tends to be necessarily harsh, and in a world where the criminal justice system is so overwhelmed they don't allow court cases to exceed three days, I'm more than willing to believe they're handing out the death sentence a little easier than we do.*** Still, Frank Sawhit did not get the death penalty, and Godot was more sympathetic than him, so I doubt he would have gotten it either.* In the third case, there's a few problems I have with the circumstances of Tigre's "debt collection" from Glen. Why didn't Tigre just ask Glen for the virus CD, and explain to him his situation? I understand that the virus was illegal, and so he was excited when he won the $500,000 on the lottery because he could pay it with clean money. Presumably, him handing over the virus was his last resort. However, couldn't Tigre have just gone, "Look, I actually owe a violent criminal $1,000,000 and I need to get it now, or I'm as good as dead. I really need that CD, it'll literally save my life. I can sell it for the money I need. So if you give me the CD, I'll consider your debts paid, you'll get to keep your clean lotto' money, and I won't die. Everyone will be happy".** It is entirely possible Tigre could have said that. However, Glen Elg is a programmer, so he knows good and well the kind of damage that something like his MC Bomber virus could do. So Elg may well have simply said "No." And that's not a word Tigre wanted to hear.*** Elg created the virus himself, and was willing to hand it over to Tigre knowing the damage that he could do with it. I think this establishes Elg as an AssholeVictim. Keeping that in mind, if he was already going to hand it over to save his own life, who's to say he would not still hand it over to save himself 100 grand? Saving yourself 100 grand might not be as important as saving your life (it isn't), but an unsympathetic cad like Elg might still make that deal.** Does asking nicely ''really'' look like something Tiger would do?*** To save himself from needing to murder a guy, yes. Its not about "asking nicely", it's about other options that were there for Tigre besides "well he's won the lottery, I've gotta murder him now". Elg suddenly winning the lottery doesn't mean Tigre couldn't have gotten the CD if he had the common sense to just ask for it to be the payment, instead of the lottery money. *** And what makes you think he gives a crap whether Elg lives or dies? Don't forget, Tiger didn't just grab whatever he could get a hold of, and murdered Elg in anger. He used cyanide, which means he must've brought it with him. Whcih means he was at least prepared to kill Elg from the start. There is exacly one character Tiger is nice towards: Viola. And only because he didn't want to get on her grandpa's bad side. Maybe trying to convince Elg to give him the virus would've been possible if Elg listened, but it would certainly require more compassion than Tiger is capable of.*** Lack of compassion and apathy over people's lives is one thing, but that doesn't mean you'd be willing to murder someone and risk going to jail for it if you can help it. They were in a public place, where murdering someone is flat out dangerous to do. Yes the restaurant was empty besides those two at the time, but customers could've waltzed in at any minute. Plus covering up the murder and having it be a successful as it was relied on a lot of luck on Tigre's part. There happened to only be one waitress, who happened to faint, and later on only one customer happened to come into the restaurant who happened to be a senile old man, who happened to have a waitress fetish. There's no way Tigre could've realistically seen the cover up going as well as it did, and there's no reason for him to risk so much when he could've just spoken seven words and went "I want the CD as payment instead". Elg could've said no, sure, but there was a big chance he'd say yes, which could've saved Tigre a lot of luck-based effort on a halve-arsed cover-up.*** How big chance? The reason Tiger wanted the virus was because it was worth far more than what Elg owed him. From selfish standpoint Elg has no reason to give him the virus once he has the money. If he keeps the virus he keeps his hands clean and can potentailly sell it himself to gain far more than he would've if he handed it over. From selfless standpoint the virus is really dangerous and while Elg was desperate enough to make it as a payup, he might not ba ''happy'' about virus getting out. And if Tiger needs money because of what was his own damn fault why should Elg care? Tiger owning money to Bruto was Tiger's problem, Elg isn't charity. And why would even Elg assume that Tiger is telling the truth and not just making bulshit up to get the virus? And finally taking all of the above into account why would Tiger think Elg would listen, even if he asked nicely? *** You keep avoiding the point, which is that Tigre had other options open to him other then "murder Elg". This isn't about compassion or niceness. Even they were likely to even work or not, it was stupidly rash of Tigre to jump straight to murder instead of at least trying something else. *** Because Tiger IS rash. He's TheAsshole, who works by intimidating everyone around him, and the only reason he was ever nice to anyone was because said anyone was MafiaPrincess with TheDreaded grandfather who would've killed him if he wasn't. When Tiger met Elg he had cyanide ready, that means he was ready to kill him from the start. And you keep asking why wouldn't someone like that ''ask nicely'' when such thing would be insanely out of character for him. Tiger was confident that he'd get away with the murder and he almost did. If Dick didn't go to Phoenix he would have. Why ''would'' he search for other options? Especially one that would require more niceness than he's capable of towards someone who isn't scarier than him? * How did Maya not know Godot? He was [[spoiler:Mia's boyfriend]], and it is heavily implied that Maya regularly visited Mia before the events of 1-2. When [[spoiler: Diego fell into a coma, Mia must have grieved for a while too, and at least mentioned him to Maya.]] So how could Maya have not known or recognised him?** Maybe Maya did remember [[spoiler: Diego and that Mia had a boyfriend that "died", but just didn't remember what he looked like, or what his mannerisms were? Besides that, there's an even more probably reason: Diego was supposedly killed. Although officially it wasn't classifed as a murder, it was to the general public, and possibility therefore even Diego's friends & family. Although we're not given a reason as to why the incident was made to look like a murder, it's entirely possible that Mia thought it was one, and that Maya therefore thought it was too. If that's the case, then it stands to reason she wouldn't think Godot is Diego. Diego is dead from her viewpoint]].

* After replaying Case 3-5, something caught my attention and make me think... [[spoiler: when did Morgan Fey write the letter asking Pearl to channel Dahlia?]]. It could me misremembering Case 2-2, but [[spoiler: Morgan's involvement with Dr. Grey's murder and trying to pin it on Maya was revealed in the very last day of the trial, giving her practically no time to think of the plan, write it on the letter and leave it on Fey Manor before being arrested]]. Supposing [[spoiler: Morgan [[CrazyPrepared had actually written the letter long before being suspected of being an accomplice]], this plan would still rely on the coincidence that Morgan were sent to the same detention center Dahlia was in, and telling her of her plan of killing Maya (Which, if Case 3-4 is of any indication, Dahlia did not recognize Mia, then much less Maya) for it to even have a chance of succeeding (As otherwise there would be a very puzzled Dahlia wondering why was she summoned)]]. I frankly cannot see how it was supposed to work.** It's possible, though rather difficult. When Morgan Fey left the stand in 2-2, she could have suspected that her carefully devised plan was being unraveled. And until the end of that trial, nobody would have had reason to arrest her. Most importantly of all, Kurain Village is actually quite far away. So Morgan would have had at least a few hours to devise the plan, draft a latter, and hide it in the mansion. She could work out the details with [[spoiler:Dahlia]] later.** It was my understanding that Pearl still visited her mother in prison, and the letter was given to her during one such visit not long before the Hazakura Temple trip.* Why didn't 3-5's revenge plan directly target Phoenix? [[spoiler:While striking at Maya would have given Dahlia revenge against Mia, wouldn't killing Phoenix serve an equal purpose as well as target someone that she hated on a personal level? Morgan would also have a personal vendetta, as Phoenix was the one who revealed her connection to her previous attempt on Maya's reputation. And most importantly... haven't these people figured out that killing Phoenix is the key to actually getting away with any murders they commit, since nobody else on the case ever figures it out... except Mia, who was already dead? Just make it look like Maya did it and they're both out of your hair. (Also, as an unexpected bonus, Godot would never come up with a plan to protect him, and Iris would have probably chosen to not visit him again to save him the heartbreak.)]]** That would have been a more effective alternative. Though I think you forgot that [[spoiler:Richard Wellington was close to killing Phoenix. Granted all he did was hit Wright over the head with a fire extinguisher and gave him amnesia, but he did have the right idea]].** Because it was [[spoiler: Morgan who hatched the plan, not Dahlia. Morgan wasn't interested in revenge, by proxy or otherwise, but in securing Pearl's position as master. Killing Phoenix wouldn't help her in that. And I doubt Morgan or Dahlia were interested in getting away with anything since they were already both in prison.]]*** But Morgan could have killed two birds with one stone if she had Phoenix killed and had Maya take the fall. If that happened, almost nobody would be able to save Maya at that point, since the most competent people would either be dead or prosecutors, thus unable to defend her.*** And how would she pull this off? Morgan didn't even know Phoenix would be there at Hazakura, and she had one shot, I doubt Pearl would ever call Dahlia again if she killed someone. Frameups are by their nature much more complicated than simple murders, she couldn't order Dahlia to kill Phoenix and frame Maya and expect reasonable chance of success. And her plan was made on short notice just before she was sent to prison, she didn't have time or resources to hatch anything more complicated than "call Dahlia in Hazakura, tell her to kill Maya, everyone will think it was Iris, so you'll be safe".*** Well, maybe because framing Maya had already failed once...? Remember, she tried to frame her before and failed. She's no idea that Nick is an extraordinary attorney. For all she knows, all attorneys are as good as Phoenix and Mia. The quickest and simplest thing? Kill Maya.* Did Pearl just... forget that Franziska is the reason 2-4 turned out so well? She clearly knows, because she's not rude to Franziska at the end of the episode in question. When she sees Franziska in 3-5, Pearl reams her for her prior behaviour in 2-2... but she knows that were it not for Franziska, Engarde would have gotten away and/or Maya would be dead. It could just be distress, but considering she ran into Fran when she was working WITH Phoenix? It seems odd as anything except to show Franziska's a lot more human than the fans think of her.** It's stress, most likely. Remember, Pearl's a 9-year-old kid who just spent a day trapped in a place she's never been to before, which probably isn't terribly safe, either. She's also been worried about Maya the whole time. Under the circumstances, it makes sense for her to snap at Franziska; if Pearl had run into her at any other time, she'd probably be more polite to her for the reasons you stated.** The only time Franz actually helped during Engarde case was when she brought the 3 pieces of evidence at the end. Pearl couldn't remember that particuar moment because she was chanelling Mia at the time.* Okay, maybe I'm just being dumb, but in Case 3-1, there's an offhand line from Mia, regarding Phoenix, saying "that P on his sweater doesn't stand for Phoenix!" when she's mad at him for lying. Was this just GettingCrapPastTheRadar and calling him a "pussy" (seeing as he was crying at the time) or something else?** It could be, but there's another word that starts with 'P' and means roughly the same thing without being mildly vulgar and out of character for Mia - I took it as her calling him a "pansy".*** It could also be something like "pathetic" or "pitiful." That's what I assumed at first, and wouldn't have thought it was something dirtier if I hadn't seen anyone else suggest it. There's ''several'' derogatory words starting with P that Mia could've meant there, really.* During the first recess in 3-3, Maggey suddenly declares that she loathes Gumshoe's guts because he didn't openly declare on the stand that he believed her to be innocent. Even leaving aside the fact that Gumshoe had previously been rebuked plenty of times (and even threatened with wage deductions) by Edgeworth and both von Karmas for interjecting his own opinions while on the witness stand, did she forget that the only reason she was even able to get a retrial in the first place was because Gumshoe ''didn't'' believe she could be a murderer? Or does she genuinely believe that Gumshoe is such a sadistic asshole that he'd get her a retrial just so that he could personally watch her be declared guilty again?** Did Phoenix actually ''tell'' her that Dick was the one who asked him to defend her? For all she knew it was Phoenix trying to help her, she might not have known about Dick's involvement.*** I'm pretty sure it would've come up in conversation at some point. Phoenix knows Gumshoe has a thing for Maggey, so I can't imagine he wouldn't have brought it up. Even still, if she did think that Phoenix did it himself, Maggey should have had the common sense, especially as a former policewoman, to know that Gumshoe was just doing his job and didn't exactly have much choice. The way she got upset at Gumshoe honestly came across as extremely selfish to me.** The larger problem here is that, in 2-1, Gumshoe did pretty much the same thing when testifying and Maggey merely took it as Gumshoe being dumb. Then again, after being in jail for a month, she probably TookALevelInJerkass.* What would be Godot charged for after what he did in 3-5? Murder or Manslaughter? Since in a way he struck at Dahlia, but it was Misty who ended up killed by that strike.** Probably murder. True, this situation has never happened in real life, but he struck Misty knowing full well he was killing Misty in the process of killing Dahlia (and, as several others have pointed out, his entire attack was premeditated) so you can't call it an accident. I doubt you could make a case for manslaughter.

to:

* After replaying Case 3-5, something caught my attention and make me think... [[spoiler: when How did Morgan Fey write the letter asking Pearl to channel Dahlia?]]. It could me misremembering Case 2-2, but [[spoiler: Morgan's involvement with Dr. Grey's murder and trying to pin it on Maya not know Godot? He was revealed in the very last day of the trial, giving her practically no time to think of the plan, write it on the letter Mia's boyfriend, and leave it on Fey Manor is heavily implied that Maya regularly visited Mia before being arrested]]. Supposing [[spoiler: Morgan [[CrazyPrepared had actually written the letter long before being suspected events of being an accomplice]], this plan 1-2. [[spoiler:When Diego fell into a coma, Mia must have grieved for a while too, and at least mentioned him to Maya.]] So how could Maya have not known or recognised him?%%Ed Note: Although the interactions questioned would still rely on the coincidence that Morgan were sent to the same detention center Dahlia was in, be in cases 3-2 and telling her of her plan of killing Maya (Which, if Case 3-4 is of any indication, Dahlia did not recognize Mia, then much less Maya) for it to even have a chance of succeeding (As otherwise 3-3, there would be a very puzzled Dahlia wondering why was she summoned)]]. I frankly cannot see how it was supposed to work.** It's possible, though rather difficult. When Morgan Fey left the stand in 2-2, she could have suspected that her carefully devised plan was being unraveled. And until the end of that trial, nobody would have had no reason to arrest her. Most importantly of all, Kurain Village is actually quite far away. So Morgan would have had at least a few hours to devise the plan, draft a latter, question them until 3-4, hence why it's here.** Maybe Maya did remember [[spoiler: Diego and hide it in the mansion. She could work out the details with [[spoiler:Dahlia]] later.** It was my understanding that Pearl still visited her mother in prison, and the letter was given to her during one such visit not long before the Hazakura Temple trip.* Why Mia had a boyfriend that "died", but just didn't 3-5's revenge plan directly target Phoenix? [[spoiler:While striking at Maya would have given Dahlia revenge against Mia, wouldn't killing Phoenix serve an equal purpose as well as target someone that she hated on a personal level? Morgan would also have a personal vendetta, as Phoenix was the one who revealed her connection to her previous attempt on Maya's reputation. And most importantly... haven't these people figured out that killing Phoenix is the key to actually getting away with any murders they commit, since nobody else on the case ever figures it out... except Mia, who was already dead? Just make it look like Maya did it and they're both out of your hair. (Also, as an unexpected bonus, Godot would never come up with a plan to protect him, and Iris would have probably chosen to not visit him again to save him the heartbreak.)]]** That would have been a more effective alternative. Though I think you forgot that [[spoiler:Richard Wellington was close to killing Phoenix. Granted all he did was hit Wright over the head with a fire extinguisher and gave him amnesia, but he did have the right idea]].** Because it was [[spoiler: Morgan who hatched the plan, not Dahlia. Morgan wasn't interested in revenge, by proxy or otherwise, but in securing Pearl's position as master. Killing Phoenix wouldn't help her in that. And I doubt Morgan or Dahlia were interested in getting away with anything since they were already both in prison.]]*** But Morgan could have killed two birds with one stone if she had Phoenix killed and had Maya take the fall. If that happened, almost nobody would be able to save Maya at that point, since the most competent people would either be dead or prosecutors, thus unable to defend her.*** And how would she pull this off? Morgan didn't even know Phoenix would be there at Hazakura, and she had one shot, I doubt Pearl would ever call Dahlia again if she killed someone. Frameups are by their nature much more complicated than simple murders, she couldn't order Dahlia to kill Phoenix and frame Maya and expect reasonable chance of success. And her plan was made on short notice just before she was sent to prison, she didn't have time or resources to hatch anything more complicated than "call Dahlia in Hazakura, tell her to kill Maya, everyone will think it was Iris, so you'll be safe".*** Well, maybe because framing Maya had already failed once...? Remember, she tried to frame her before and failed. She's no idea that Nick is an extraordinary attorney. For all she knows, all attorneys are as good as Phoenix and Mia. The quickest and simplest thing? Kill Maya.* Did Pearl just... forget that Franziska is the reason 2-4 turned out so well? She clearly knows, because she's not rude to Franziska at the end of the episode in question. When she sees Franziska in 3-5, Pearl reams her for her prior behaviour in 2-2... but she knows that were it not for Franziska, Engarde would have gotten away and/or Maya would be dead. It could just be distress, but considering she ran into Fran when she was working WITH Phoenix? It seems odd as anything except to show Franziska's a lot more human than the fans think of her.** It's stress, most likely. Remember, Pearl's a 9-year-old kid who just spent a day trapped in a place she's never been to before, which probably isn't terribly safe, either. She's also been worried about Maya the whole time. Under the circumstances, it makes sense for her to snap at Franziska; if Pearl had run into her at any other time, she'd probably be more polite to her for the reasons you stated.** The only time Franz actually helped during Engarde case was when she brought the 3 pieces of evidence at the end. Pearl couldn't remember that particuar moment because she was chanelling Mia at the time.* Okay, maybe I'm just being dumb, but in Case 3-1, what he looked like, or what his mannerisms were? Besides that, there's an offhand line from Mia, regarding Phoenix, saying "that P on his sweater doesn't stand for Phoenix!" when she's mad at him for lying. Was this just GettingCrapPastTheRadar even more probably reason: Diego was supposedly killed. Although officially it wasn't classifed as a murder, it was to the general public, and calling him possibility therefore even Diego's friends & family. Although we're not given a "pussy" (seeing reason as he to why the incident was crying at the time) or something else?** It could be, but there's another word made to look like a murder, it's entirely possible that starts with 'P' and means roughly the same thing without being mildly vulgar and out of character for Mia - I took it as her calling him a "pansy".*** It could also be something like "pathetic" or "pitiful." That's what I assumed at first, and wouldn't have thought it was something dirtier if I hadn't seen anyone else suggest it. There's ''several'' derogatory words starting with P one, and that Mia could've meant there, really.* During Maya therefore thought it was too. If that's the first recess in 3-3, Maggey suddenly declares that she loathes Gumshoe's guts because he didn't openly declare on the stand that he believed her case, then it stands to be innocent. Even leaving aside the fact that Gumshoe had previously been rebuked plenty of times (and even threatened with wage deductions) by Edgeworth and both von Karmas for interjecting his own opinions while on the witness stand, did she forget that the only reason she was even able to get a retrial in the first place was because Gumshoe ''didn't'' believe she could be a murderer? Or does she genuinely believe that Gumshoe is such a sadistic asshole that he'd get her a retrial just so that he could personally watch her be declared guilty again?** Did Phoenix actually ''tell'' her that Dick was the one who asked him to defend her? For all she knew it was Phoenix trying to help her, she might not have known about Dick's involvement.*** I'm pretty sure it would've come up in conversation at some point. Phoenix knows Gumshoe has a thing for Maggey, so I can't imagine he wouldn't have brought it up. Even still, if she did think that Phoenix did it himself, Maggey should have had the common sense, especially as a former policewoman, to know that Gumshoe was just doing his job and didn't exactly have much choice. The way she got upset at Gumshoe honestly came across as extremely selfish to me.** The larger problem here is that, in 2-1, Gumshoe did pretty much the same thing when testifying and Maggey merely took it as Gumshoe being dumb. Then again, after being in jail for a month, she probably TookALevelInJerkass.* What would be Godot charged for after what he did in 3-5? Murder or Manslaughter? Since in a way he struck at Dahlia, but it was Misty who ended up killed by that strike.** Probably murder. True, this situation has never happened in real life, but he struck Misty knowing full well he was killing Misty in the process of killing Dahlia (and, as several others have pointed out, his entire attack was premeditated) so you can't call it an accident. I doubt you could make a case for manslaughter.is Diego. Diego is dead from her viewpoint]].

\n----[[folder:"Bridge to the Turnabout" (Case 3-5)]]* Why does Godot blame Phoenix and then himself for the death of Mia? Phoenix wasn't there when her death occurred and Godot was ''still in a coma'' at the time. He talks about being oblivious being the worst crime imaginable, but in that situation of helplessness or unable to do anything, how could [=ANYthing=] else have been done? What other possible decisions could've been made?** I think this is intentional and related to Godot's warped, sexist worldview. He blames himself because he sees himself as Mia's protector, and blames Phoenix because he was really the only male figure in Mia's life at the time and thus by default (in Godot's view) it is Phoenix's responsibility to be alert on Mia's behalf. Godot would probably also say that it was his own carelessness that led to his being poisoned, meaning that he couldn't be around when Mia was in danger and needed his protection.*** Actually, this troper doesn't think Godot is nearly as sexist as everyone makes him out to be. This troper thinks it's down to a very simple reason- survivor's guilt. There's a tendency for survivors of tragedies, or even people who have someone important to them die- to think that they should have somehow stopped it, regardless of whether it was even possible for them to have done so. It has nothing to do with sex- Godot doesn't necessarily think of himself as Mia's protector, or think that she was incapable of taking care of herself- he just has a standard case of survivor's guilt. She died, he lived, he should have saved her, regardless of the fact that he was poisoned, simply because he was the one who lived. As for Phoenix, Godot himself stated he was just using him as a sort of scapegoat to avoid facing his own guilt. Not the greatest thing to do, but not something that one could cry sexism for.*** Still, there's an element of sexism in Godot deciding to blame Phoenix in particular. Not Maya, not Misty, not any of the women Mia was close to. He sees Phoenix, an important male in Mia's life, and assumes everything was his fault.*** ...except Misty was kind of missing and Maya was ''17''. Phoenix was the closest adult to her and worked in the same office, so he blames him for it.*** Plus the fact that he already had reason to dislike Phoenix, as he spelled out during the final trial. He helped the woman who "killed" him, however innocently he did it.* In ''Trials and Tribulations'', it's revealed that part of the reason Mia went off to law school and left Kurain Village behind was because she didn't want her and her sister to end up fighting over who was the head of the Main Family and who was the head of the Branch Family [[spoiler:as their mother and aunt did.]] Given that this meant that someone could step down from leading the family, why is that Morgan Fey [[spoiler:went to all the trouble of framing Maya for murder in order to remove her for consideration as heir to the title of Master? Given how much Maya and Pearl love each other and the fact that Maya doesn't even like the politics of Kurain Village anyway, would it just have been easier to ''ask'' Maya to step aside in favor of Pearl?]]** It would never occur to Morgan that Maya would comply.** She couldn't just ask Maya. Maya and Mia were siblings of the main family and in that case it's just a matter of who have the most spiritual powers. Pearl is from the branch family and the only time the village would pick someone from a branch family is when there was no one left in the main one.** You seem to be forgetting the little detail that Morgan is [[spoiler:batshit insane. She doesn't just want Pearl to become head of the clan, she also genuinely hates Misty and wants her and her daughters to suffer. Seriously, even ''Dahlia Hawthorne'' finds Morgan a little too evil for her tastes. And when ''Dahlia'' finds a character creepy, you can't expect anything resembling common sense from her.]]* In 3-5, Edgeworth states that a prosecutor can "carry a whip or drink 17 cups of coffee." I don't remember Gumshoe ever mentioning Godot's coffee addiction. How did Edgeworth know?** Because Edgeworth met [[spoiler:Diego Armando]] during [[spoiler:his very first case as a prosecutor]] and recognized that [[spoiler:he and Godot were one and the same]]?*** Even when he hasn't even met him? Remember, Godot was [[spoiler:stuck on the other side of the Inner Temple at the time, so Edgeworth had no way to meet him and realize that he was Armando.]]** Edgeworth was still a prosecutor with a fair bit of connections, even if he was spending time abroad. It's not that odd that someone else at the prosecutors office or in the police would tell him about Phoenix Wright's newest rival.* Question about the last case of ''Trials and Tribulations'': [[spoiler:Is there any way that Godot's going to get any sort of harsh sentence for actions? He was protecting someone he cared about from an obvious psychopath who had killed multiple times before. This is like Luke going to jail for killing Darth Vader or something like that.]]** Well, he didn't really [[spoiler: kill ''her'', he killed Misty Fey, who was an innocent woman. The result of his action was that Maya's mother died and Dahlia survived (as much as she already was) to testify in court.]]** There's also the popular fan theory that [[spoiler: Godot is in such poor health that he died soon after the trial. The only thing keeping him alive was sheer determination to defeat Phoenix Wright and/or protect Maya. So while he may have been convicted, he never went to jail.]]*** Note that this depends on what Godot tells Phoenix to explain the former's absence until that point -- but Godot is [[spoiler: lying to cover up that he had been on that side of the river all along. The medical treatments he says or implies he had been undergoing at that time never happened.]] So he could be in much better shape than he claims, aside from his vision. For that matter, he survived [[spoiler: an unplanned stay of two days in midwinter with totally inadequate facilities.]]** Despite his actions, [[spoiler: Godot killed someone. And it's pointed out quite specifically, by Godot no less, that he really had a number of options available were he just looking to protect Maya. By actively killing Misty, he acknowledged and confessed to premeditated murder. Even though it may have been consider justifiable had he only acted to save her...he had plenty of time to do something else. Sentence: death.]]** He was a man desperate for [[spoiler: revenge from the woman who poisoned him and ruined his life. Dahlia was already dead, but after reading the note and knowing he could find a way to exact revenge, he used Maya's family for his own selfish needs. In my interpretation, I'd say he's up there with Dahlia in terms of being a main villain of that game.]]*** That would make sense if [[spoiler: Godot had planned on killing Misty from the beginning rather than hoping that there was a way to stop the plot against Maya without killing anyone. That interpretation is at odds with the game: 1. Misty said she had hoped she could stop the whole thing just by reading to Pearl all evening. Maybe Godot was in on that. 2. Godot said that the reason he hadn't asked for Phoenix's help was out of pride. Assuming this is true, this implies that it ''wasn't'' because he wanted to prevent plans for stopping the attack without killing anyone from succeeding.]]*** [[spoiler: Here's the thing: there is no such thing as premeditated self-defense/defense of other. Godot had ample forewarning about what was going to transpire, and had ample opportunity to warn the police, Phoenix, Maya, Misty, Sister Bikini, any number of people who could have caused Morgan's plan to go belly up without endangering the lives of anyone involved. Instead, he chose to withhold the information in order to play the hero himself. By his own admission, this was a selfish decision made not for Maya's benefit, but so that Godot could make amends to himself for not being there to save Mia, and also partially inspired by a desire for revenge against Godot's own would-be murderer, Dahlia Hawthorne. Although he was not planning to kill Misty Fey, he made the choice to allow the engangerment of many out of selfishness, and Misty Fey paid for that selfishness with her life. It's very easy to sympathize with Godot; he IS a victim, after all, and he suffered tremendously for other people's choices. Who hasn't lost someone they loved tremendously for reasons they felt were beyond their control? However, sympathetic though he may be, he still made poor choices that resulted in the death of an innocent woman, and his conviction for her murder is the consequence for that decision. Godot effectively paid his trauma forward to Maya and Pearl, taking their mother/aunt away from them before their relationships with her could ever even really get off the ground for his own selfish motives, just as Dahlia and Redd White took Mia from him.]]** This may not be an actual law, but I think it's likely that [[spoiler:you can only plead self-defense or protecting somebody if you plead so right off the bat. He was actually PROSECUTING somebody else for the murder, and never admitted to his actions until the last minute. He probably had this option (Hey Phoenix it was me, no need for a case.) but wanted one showdown with Phoenix.]]** [[spoiler: Godot, for one, admitted to murdering Misty. Misty agreed to be murdered, too, mind you, so this is basically assisted suicide. Godot went with this method because, one, it would protect Maya, and two, it would give him the chance to put Phoenix "in his place" for not protecting Mia. Godot is just as much of a villain as von Karma, in that he had a petty reason to do the elaborate crime he committed. Godot, in the end, committed premeditated murder and actively tried to push the blame on someone else.]]*** [[spoiler: Misty never planned on getting murdered so much as she preferred to assume that risk for herself rather than making Pearl take the risk. She may have consented to being killed if there was no other way to stop Dahlia, but that wasn't plan A for her. There isn't proof that that was plan A for Godot, either. It is also implied that he didn't fully make up his mind to kill her until after he was stabbed.]]*** [[spoiler:They were both still fully aware that it was an option. Godot not only admitted that ''he knew'' at that moment that he wouldn't really be stopping "Dahlia" and knew that it was really Misty ''or Pearl'' that he'd be stabbing, he also admitted that he willingly risked Maya's life just so he could go in and "save" her. That kind of implies that he pretty much let Dahlia get summoned despite the fact he probably knew that it would make it fairly likely that at least ''one'' person would walk out of there with at least some serious injuries]].** In ''[=AAI2=]'', [[spoiler:criminals from the previous game are shown as still alive.]] Also, [[spoiler: Kristoph in ''Apollo Justice'' was sitting around in his jail cell, clearly not dead for murdering an innocent man.]]*** [[spoiler: Kristoph had connections mad enough to get a ''freakin wall full of books'' on his solitary cell. It's really likely he was using those same connections to avert his sentence.]] *** [[spoiler: Time is a factor. People tend to sit on Death Row for a fairly decent amount of time before their actual execution. Dahlia Hawthorne was evil as they come and still took - I think the game said six months? - before her execution.]]*** [[spoiler: Actually, Dahlia was on Death Row for five years, not six months. And wasn't 'Dahlia' going to ''kill'' Maya regardless of being in Misty's body? Yes, what Godot did was undeniably selfish, but in a way, it was in defence of another, I thought.]]*** [[spoiler: There is no such thing as pre-meditated defense of another. By not acting on the information he had until the event was transpiring, Godot allowed the attempt on Maya's life to happen so that he could make his move. In this way, he becomes an accomplice to the attempt on Maya's life in addition to being the culprit responsible for the murder of Misty Fey. Had he done the responsible thing, Maya's life would never have been in danger to begin with, and Misty would still be alive. Thus, Godot shares responsibility for Maya's attempted murder, and is out-and-out guilty of the murder of Misty Fey.]]*** [[spoiler: Iris and Misty were also aware of the murder plot, though. They could have told someone, but like Godot, they didn't. Misty is killed but Iris isn't. Then shouldn't Iris be guilty of assisting a murder? Personally, I think that they should look at what Godot did - he defended Maya, and if Iris wasn't being tried for concealing knowledge of the plot, then it would not be fair to try Godot for that. All Iris is going to be tried for is altering the crime scene, not concealing the plot. Why try Godot for that, then? I think Godot would be ruled as having killed in defense of another, thus a not guilty verdict, but would die shortly after due to his poor health. Oh, and posts above said that Godot was just as much of a villain as Manfred von Karma or Dahlia. Don't get me started on the high degree to which those statements are wrong.]]*** [[spoiler:Misty and Iris were accomplices, but we don't know how much Godot told them about what was going on. Somehow, I doubt he brought up the fact that he could have stopped the whole situation simply by stealing Morgan's letter and thus keeping Pearl from learning about the plan to begin with. He also played off of Iris's guilty conscious over Dahlia. Given how determined he was to have his chance to play the hero against Dahlia, he very well might have convinced the two that it was in their best interests to not call the police. Not to mention that when they agreed to the plan, murder wasn't a part of it. The ideal plan was that Misty would keep Pearl distracted, and Dahlia wouldn't have been summoned at all. Iris had no part in Godot's decision to kill Dahlia (and by extension, Misty) until he told her to alter the crime scene.]]** The thing is,[[spoiler:Godot was acting in self defense, and in defense of Maya. But, he was willing to let an innocent person be convicted of the crime, withheld information from the police that put the lives of Maya, Pearl, Misty, and even Iris at risk, and by choosing to go after Dahlia himself instead of get police help, he took justice into his own hands, which is vigilantism. All these things would lead to him getting a guilty verdict. Whether he gets found guilty or not, though, it's safe to assume Godot didn't survive long after the events of the game.]]** Is no one going to point out that [[spoiler:withholding information which could prevent a murder]] is still legally somewhere between murder 2 and voluntary manslaughter? Both of which are shown in-universe to be punished the same as murder 1?* Case 3-5: [[spoiler: Why didn't Godot swing across on the same rope that carried Misty's body?]]** Because [[spoiler: if he fell into the river, he'd die, most probably.]]*** But [[spoiler: he wouldn't fall in as long as he tied the rope securely around himself, like he did to Misty. And since Dahlia was still at large as far as he knew (he wasn't there when Maya locked herself in the cavern), risking the river would seem to be the safer bet.]]*** [[spoiler: The victim fell 10 feet after death because of that rope trick. If Godot had attempted it, he'd have died whether or not he fell into the river.]]*** [[spoiler: Oh my god, a ten foot drop! [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat No one could survive that!]]]]*** [[spoiler: [[ProfessionalWrestling How do ya learn to fall off a 20 foot ladder?]]]]*** [[spoiler: It was late at night, it was cold, his body was utterly messed up, and he had gone for hours without his coffee. It was not the time for a dramatic action sequence. Besides, he had some snow to clean up first. And... uh... Mia would have never forgiven him if he had left Maya alone on that side all night.]]*** Also, [[spoiler: there was always the chance that someone would see him. I think the point of Iris framing herself rather than just dropping the body into the water was to create a court case, so that Godot could blend in with the investigation group and get back home without arousing suspicion.]]*** [[spoiler: He never got the chance to actually escape, after using the rope to swing the body it ended up dangling in the middle of the bridge like it's seen on the photo, it didn't return to the other side. And he didn't swing along with the body because he had cleaning to do.]]*** Not to mention [[spoiler: he got stabbed in the face earlier. Do you really feel like swinging across a dangerous river on a flimsy rope connected to a burning bridge, all the while with a stabbed face?]]* How did Dahlia [[spoiler:successfully impersonate Iris? We've seen various members of the Fey family channel Mia, and each time, while [[{{Fanservice}} Mia's presence]] was fully visible, it was also obvious who was channeling her. Yet she managed a picture-perfect Iris imitation, and one that can fool ''the player'', unlike Tigre. She didn't display Maya's black hair, nor her usual red. (On the brighter side, as seen when Dahlia left her body, Maya's hair ''was'' let down.) She couldn't have planned for this, either; the intent was for ''Pearl'' to channel her, and both Misty and Maya's channelings occurred without her knowledge. (For the record, does she dye? You wouldn't expect identical twins to have such different hair colors, yet even her spirit is a fiery redhead.)]]** With regards to the hair dye stuff, I always assumed that Iris was the one who dyed her hair, because of the whole deal with the spirit.*** Given that almost everyone else in the family has black or dark brown hair, Dahlia's has to be the one that's dyed. Her spirit's ''eyes'' are red too, aren't they? Can't be literal.*** Everyone else in the ''Fey'' family. The twins could've inherited red hair from their father, who is never seen. And Dahlia didn't have red eyes when she was alive, so that's just a visual cue that she's an evil spirit. This ''does'' invalidate the logic that the red hair of Dahlia's spirit proves that hers was the natural hair color, but at the same time, there's reasonable doubt--bright red hair would stand out among the dark-haired Feys, so Iris could've dyed it when she returned to Hazakura Temple to become a shrine maiden.*** Also, remember that [[spoiler:Iris successfully impersonated Dahlia when Dahlia and Phoenix were dating back in Ivy University. Either way, Iris would have to have dyed her hair at some point in time, whereas the only time Dahlia has impersonated Iris was when her spirit was in Maya's body.]]** And a minor thing: [[spoiler:does that mean that Iris was wearing Maya's outfit when she was found?]] Not a headscratcher; just an excuse for fanart.*** I think [[spoiler:Maya changed into a Hazakura Temple outfit before she began training. Sure, her sprites during the flashback have her wearing her usual clothes, but that's just because Capcom didn't have much room to spare on the GBA cart.]]*** My only conclusion is that Dahlia and Iris actually do have black hair and the visual difference is just for the sake of the player. Which still doesn't explain the non-black haired people that were channeling her and ARGH ARGH [[MST3KMantra JUST A GAME BRAIN HURT]].** [[spoiler: Iris has black hair. Dahlia was impersonating Iris]]. Maya has black hair. [[spoiler: Dahlia had Maya's hair]]. I honestly don't see a problem here.*** It may just be an optical illusion, but Iris's hair looks gray to me. Also, the host keeps her hairstyle, and I don't know if Maya's hair braids up that well in the front.*** Dahlia testified that [[spoiler: when she was channeled that night, the first thing she did was pin her hair up, though why she did that when she was going to be wearing a hood, or how she did it without hair pins or the like, is beyond me. At that time she was actually being channeled by Misty Fey, though she didn't know it; maybe when she was channeled by the mystery medium in the Training Hall she pinned her hair up in the dark?]]*** One thing though, [[spoiler: Dahlia could not have been surprised to learn that it was Maya who was chanelling her in court. The hairstyle of the summoner is kept (when either Maya or Pearl channel Mia), so in pinning her hair up, Dahlia must have at least felt, if not seen her hair. if she really had been summoned by Pearl, then she wouldn't have been able to impersonate Iris anyway since she's a light brunette. Dahlia should have known Maya summoned her if she gave it a moment of thought.]] *** Except that [[spoiler: Dahlia Never met Maya, Pearl or for that matter Misty. Morgan might've shown her Maya's picture so she'd know who to kill, but she had no way of knowing which of these three called her]]*** It seemed more like she never suspected that Maya could have come up with the idea to channel Dahlia's spirit on her own (which she didn't). As for the hair, unless Morgan specifically told Dahlia "My daughter will summon you. She has pretzel hair, remember that", there wouldn't be any reason for Dahlia to ''not'' believe that the medium who summoned her was anyone other than Pearl Fey.** Dahlia simply never knew Pearl's hair color, as in the original plan she was supposed to wear a hood while she was channeled anyway - Morgan would have had no reason to warn her that Pearl's hair wasn't black. Since Morgan's hair is black and Dahlia might have seen herself in a mirror after Misty channeled her, it was perfectly natural for her to assume that Pearl's hair was black when she unexpectedly woke up in the cavern and went on to impersonate Iris without a hood.** There's also one more possibility. [[spoiler:Maya Fey was told by Mia to channel Dahlia. Maya doesn't go into a lot of detail about what Mia wrote. It is possible that, along with the instructions to channel Dahlia, Mia also told her to change outfits and put her hair down to avoid suspicion, and just didn't mention it to anybody.]]** There's a possibility that Iris and Dahlia have the same color hair, but it is colored differently as a convenience to the audience. The same thing comes up all the time in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', where anime-Ranma's black hair changes to red when in female form but other characters can't always tell the difference right away.* Godot [[spoiler: replaced his blood on the dagger with some other blood, I assume. Why didn't he just get rid of the thing? There was a raging river right below him.]]** [[spoiler: If you mean the night of the deal, he couldn't find the dagger. If you mean the day of the trial, Gumshoe was the one who gave it to him, he couldn't just get rid of it after that.]]** Personally, I don't believe that he [[spoiler: changed the blood on the dagger at all.]] Why? Because the dagger, [[spoiler:and the blood on it,]] is the ''only'' direct, physical evidence of [[spoiler: Godot's presence at the scene of the crime.]] Which means that, if Godot's coverup of what happened failed, that dagger, [[spoiler:and the blood on it,]] is the only way he has to [[spoiler:prove Maya Fey's innocence.]] The reason he says that [[spoiler:he swapped the blood on the dagger]] is just to throw a final hurdle at Wright, to force him to prove what really happened, leaving no doubt about who the killer is.** [[spoiler: Why could he not find the dagger the night of the murder? The garden isn't that big.]]*** Yes, but it ended up [[spoiler:stuck in the back of a tree.]] Not exactly the first place you'd look for a [[spoiler:knife that had been randomly flung somewhere.]] If that doesn't do it for you, well, Godot's vision is messed up.*** Now that I think about it, how did it get stuck [[spoiler: in the reverse side of the tree, anyway? If their fight was near the lantern, shouldn't it have ended up in the ''front'' of the tree (the part you see when you enter the garden)]]?*** I firmly believe the reason that is so, it's because they didn't want you to find it and have the blood examined, and have [[spoiler: Godot be instantly snagged into the case.]]*** Or it's possible that [[spoiler:Godot was just lying and he went and put it there in the tree himself so nobody would find it until later]].* 3-5 is full of it, in my opinion: [[spoiler: How is it that Godot could tie a rope swing around Elise's body that supported her during mid-swing but came loose at the end? I try and work out the physics of it, and the way I see it, that body either should have dropped in the river or stayed on the rope, hanging down over the river. It would have made a lot more sense if Iris had caught it, but then there wouldn't have been that infamous ten-foot drop.]]** There are certain knots that can be tied that, when pressure is released, they come undone. When [[spoiler: Misty's body swung up at the end of the arc, the knot was probably loosened enough for the body to slip free.]]** He swung it with precision so that it would come up next to the outcropping on the Hazakura Temple side, then move sideways a little and drop ''on'' the outcropping. As for why friction had seemingly no effect, he ''threw'' it down.* Why, in case 3-5, does [[spoiler:Dahlia's spirit have red hair? Dahlia did have red hair when alive, but as demonstrated by the Kurain Channeling Technique, spirits take on their host's hair. Why does Dahlia's spirit thus have hair, and not the actual features of Dahlia which are channeled?]]** It's been shown before that the host acquires some of the more iconic features of the person they are channeling: Mia and Pearl both acquire Mia's facial features, her rather impressive bust, and a mole, which would imply rather extensive physical change (in Pearl's case, at least two feet). It's possible that the specific feature you mentioned is merely such a part of the character's self-image that it transformed the channeler.** You make no sense, [[spoiler: when we see the spirit Dahlia had already stopped being channeled, so what we are seeing is her real self, so it's obvious it's going to have her normal hair again, she isn't even in Maya's body at that point]].** My theory is that the harder it is to control a spirit, the less he or she would look like the channeler.** It's a spirit. When the spirit inhabits a host, the spirit has to borrow the host's body and share physical features. When it's outside the body, it can look like whatever it wants to be. Recall 1-5, where Mia's spirit appears twice looking like she did in life. As for why it only has her red hair, remember that the spirit is being exorcised, and most likely 'fading away' just before she disappears completely. The red hair probably ''is'' important enough to the spirit that it stays on even after her other features have turned into shadows. A possible explanation may be that she actually dyed it, and her hair is actually black all along. The act of it may be important to her, perhaps symbolic of her taking charge of her own life, and thus why she values it enough to place such importance on it.* I'm very confused by the map of the Hazakura Temple area you receive in case 3-5. It appears to be a scale map of the area, including both temples, the hall and the bridge. The thing is, we know that bridge from the previous case, and both that case's map of the bridge and [[spoiler:Edgeworth's estimate of its length to Gumshoe]] put it at twenty meters in length. The path from Hazakura to the bridge appears to be about three to four times that distance, counting meandering. So eighty meters tops. It takes ''fifteen'' minutes to walk that far, or five minutes by snowmobile? That's basically... eighty steps. Even in the cold, you should be able to take more than five steps a minute!** Not to scale?** Steep, switchbacks, tons of branches and rocks hiding under the dirt to grab at careless ankles...?* Case 3-5: Once [[spoiler:Dahlia Hawthorne]] realises that [[spoiler:she's being channeled by Maya]], why doesn't [[spoiler:she attempt suicide]]? After all, we hear over and over again that [[spoiler:her objective is to kill Maya]]. Admittedly, it appears that [[spoiler:she's in denial over it for a while]] and [[spoiler:she IS in a court room]], but we already know that [[spoiler:she's a master of hiding her true nature]] and [[spoiler:it wouldn't be the first time someone has fled from, or died on, the witness stand]].** [[spoiler:I believe it was stated at some point (case 2-2?) that a medium usually takes precautions to prevent the spirit from harming its channeler. Also, Dahlia didn't have any weapon or poison at hand with which to kill herself. As for the Terry and young Phoenix incidents, they happened years ago, and presumably court security was tightened up as a response.]] Also, wouldn't killing herself be against her nature?** [[spoiler: I don't think Dahlia has prepared ''anything'' to kill herself with, and there aren't many things that can be used as aids to suicide in a courtroom. The moment she tries to seize a weapon, security will just pin her down (that's what they're trained to do). Given that, what's she gonna do? Grab a pen and stab herself? Get 1000 papercuts? Bang her head on the stand repeatedly and very, ''very'' strongly?]]** She could've just run out of the damn room and jumped off the roof. After all, [[spoiler: Dahlia repeatedly said she didn't care what would happen to herself, as she was already dead]].*** No, she could have attempted to run out of the damn room and been tackled to the ground by the bailiff, Phoenix, or any number of people between the courtroom and the roof. It's ''really hard'' to kill yourself in a room full of people, especially a room full of people who ''are all watching you''.*** And this is precisely the reason (well, one of the reasons) why [[spoiler:Godot put her on the stand and forced Phoenix to reveal her identity.]] He must have known who she was from his first conversation that morning, but if he revealed it at the wrong time, she might realize who was channeling her and kill herself. By [[spoiler:putting her on the stand]], he could alert the bailiffs to jump her if she tried to do something unexpected.* Also Case 3-5: If Godot [[spoiler:wanted to protect Maya]], why didn't he just [[spoiler: destroy Morgan's instructions so that Pearls would never find them in the first place]]?** Because Godot's desires were not as altruistic as he made himself believe. [[spoiler: He didn't just want to protect her, he wanted to ''save'' her, like he felt he had failed to do for Mia. And he couldn't do that if she wasn't in danger in the first place. He admitted as such. He even admitted the best thing he could have done was to simply tell Phoenix, who was almost always by her side, and the whole debacle would never have happened.]]** There is such a thing as Hero Syndrome.* A timing issue from 3-5: [[spoiler:What woke Larry up? The lightning strike on the bridge. He claims he sketched exactly what he saw at that moment (the sketch is presented upside down because he was lying on his back at the time). Yet the sketch shows the body swinging under the bridge... so the body was swinging the moment lightning struck the bridge?]]** The lightning woke him up, and he watched the fire for a while before he saw [[spoiler:the body swinging under the bridge]].*** '''''[[color:red:OBJECTION!]]''''' ::pointing:: That directly contradicts the witness' testimony that [[spoiler:he sketched exactly what he saw at the moment]]! Further... ::slams desk:: [[spoiler:he would have no reason to continue to lie on his back after waking up]]! This means... ::speed lines, ThemeMusicPowerUp:: [[spoiler:the picture would not have been upside down]]!!*** '''''[[color:red:HOLD IT!]]''''' Why wouldn't he [[spoiler:be laying down on his back]]? If he had just woken up, and he was [[spoiler:content with his position, then why would he move]]? Especially if he was [[spoiler:in awe of the burning bridge]]? In addition, [[spoiler:the body swinging under the bridge]] wouldn't take much time to complete at all, even if he didn't need time to take it all in! What we have here is simple; he did [[spoiler:sketch exactly what he saw at that moment]]. That moment was while he gazed in awe, and [[spoiler:saw a body swinging under a bridge]] - while he was laying on his back! Then he grabbed his sketching tools, and completed the sketch, long after that moment had passed!*** '''''[[color:red:HOLD IT!]]''''' Have '''you''' tried [[spoiler:laying on your back with your head tilted back like that]]? It's a pain in the neck... quite literally! There's no way he would have stayed that way!*** '''''[[color:red:HOLD IT!]]''''' Who says that he sketched it in that position? It would be perfectly reasonable if he sat up, sketched, then [[spoiler:went back down briefly]] to look again!*** '''''[[color:red:HOLD IT!]]''''' Larry is an idiot. Logic does not apply to him. He might very well have stayed in that position.*** The lightning roused Larry from a deep sleep, he craned his neck to see what was going on for a few moments as the bridge was going up in flames, and he snapped awake when he saw what appeared to be a [[spoiler: person flying]], immediately sat up, and sketched the sketch. Not only is it incredibly easy to assume that Larry has misrepresented or inadequately explained his testimony due to having just woke up (and being Larry), it's not that hard to think of a dozen ways those events could have occurred that match his testimony as-is.*** '''''HOLD IT!''''' If it were a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundersnow thundersnow]], there were probably ''several'' lightning strikes with associated thunder. He woke up at one of the earlier strikes and just happened to be looking outside to see the bolt that struck the bridge.* 3-5. Godot makes ''absolutely no reaction'' to Mia showing up in Pearl's body. Whut.** Presumably the same reason Franziska needed a photograph of Mia being channeled in 2-2, despite the fact that Mia was ''currently being channeled'' on the other side of the room. It seems that the rest of the court don't notice your partner unless she speaks to them first... Note that your partner often makes incredibly incriminating remarks, but nobody ever hears them.*** Except that Mia does [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTTdG7Y9Mrc#t=4m58s immediately and directly address the court at that point]]. She and Godot even [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olSDXIDRUQ4#t=4m49s exchange words]]. Godot obviously acknowledges her presence, and yet he doesn't completely freak out there (unlike later, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWfcWHOJXpQ#t=0m11s when he kind of does]]).*** He and Mia acknowledge each other, yes -- and then the very next thing he does, as that clip shows, is tell Phoenix that from here out Phoenix has to do it all himself, no beautiful women jumping in to save the day. This is likely as much a message to Mia to let her protege prove himself as it is to Phoenix. And indeed, she does -- and he freaks out because he sees her ''in'' him, or parallel to him, in the form she had when he knew her (her rookie lawyer outfit and hairstyle), not just giving him counsel from the side while being channeled. At that point he sees the LiteralMetaphor that she ''does'' live on in him, or at least her brand of wholehearted belief in the clients does. When he shows that he can do it on his own, without prompting, Godot realizes how wrong he's been and this shakes him to the core... and damn, this troper just teared up for the first time thinking about it.** Considering that there is both documented evidence of a medium changing appearance while channeling ''and'' precedence for people thinking that channeling is a hoax, it's likely that by now Kurain mediums have something of a reputation for somehow creating believable illusions of the deceased. Godot may have believed that he was seeing a very good impersonation of Mia rather than Mia herself.*** Except, the last case kind of revolves around him believing the Kurain Channeling Technique's power.** Godot had a somewhat surprised reaction to Mia being channeled through Maya in 3-2. He likely had gotten over his shock at the idea of her spirit being channeled by the time of 3-5.** It's possible that Mia told Godot about the Kurain Channeling Technique [[spoiler:back when they were both defense attorneys]]. If he already knew what was going on, it'd make sense that he'd take it in stride once he got used to it. And after all, this is the guy who [[spoiler:showed no hints that he'd been ''stabbed in the face'']], so it's not impossible that he ''was'' having a strong emotional reaction, but managing to hide it.* In game three, case five, [[spoiler: how is it that exorcism occurs in the middle of a public trial and no-one thinks it worthy of comment? I know Nick is surprised at how comfortable the Judge seems with it all, but what of the spectators? Aren't they disturbed? The existence of ghosts and the afterlife has been proven before their very eyes, for goodness' sake!]]** The second case of game 2 [[spoiler: treats the Kurain Channeling Technique as an established fact, presumably everyone already knows that ghosts exist (of course this then puts Edgeworth into Main/FlatEarthAtheist territory with his initial disbelief)]]** But Bikini mentions that the Kurain Technique was viewed with suspicion after Misty's failure, and that Kurain is failing financially as a result, or something.** It is possible that everyone in that trial was simply SO amazed by what they saw that they were stunned speechless. ** I'll go with the last one. If I were to see that in person in a trial that's already holding so much unusual facts, I'd just go O_O for a while.** There's nothing to say the spectators didn't freak out, but both attorneys and the judge were already familiar with the reality of ghosts and as long as they just kept going no one would've been able to really ask questions.* According to case 3-5, the in game court system has no problem letting the defendant in the case testify that somebody else committed the crime in another location which was, at the time, not accessible from the location the body was found at.** Most of Phoenix's rebuttal to that testimony ''is'' proving that it wasn't accessible. After all, the defendant claimed to witness the murder itself. [[spoiler:In fact, the fact that she didn't know that it wasn't accessible is key to the reveal.]]* In the final case of T&T, why did Phoenix decide to defend Iris? At the time, [[spoiler: he didn't know Dahlia had a twin: Iris. For all he knew, he was defending Dahlia who, most likely, escaped from prison.]]** It is implied heavily from Phoenix at many points that he is still in love with her. Also she constantly states that she has sins she wants to banish from herself so it's likely that Phoenix just remembered his love for her and decided to believe in her.** You two need to refresh your memory. EDGEWORTH decided to defend Iris on the condition that she tell Phoenix the truth.*** While that is true, Phoenix would not have given Miles his badge unless he wanted him to use it.*** The last Phoenix saw of Iris was five Psyche-Locks, he wanted to protect her til he got the truth out of her. And he had reason [[spoiler: to believe she wasn't Dahlia because none came up for going to his university.]]** Remember what Phoenix said after reviewing case file for 3-4. "That's not the Dahlia i know". Phoenix never really believed that Dahlia could be evil, even after she tried to kill him. When he met a girl who both looked ''and'' acted like the Dahlia he fell in love with it's obvious he believed in her, ''especially'' when she knew him. * Why did Godot try to [[spoiler: frame Iris]] in the fifth case? [[spoiler: Yeah, Iris agreed to get framed willingly, but Godot's whole goal was to protect Mia's family, right? Plus Iris is younger than him, healthier than him, female (which would presumably matter if his chauvinism is accompanied by chivalry, as is implied), etc. Is Godot really so selfish that he has to have her take the fall for what he did (which is exactly like what Dahlia did)? What makes matters worse is that it is implied that Iris agreed to take the blame because she was afraid Maya would get blamed otherwise, which would mean that she thought Godot would actually be willing to frame the very person he was trying to protect. It would be pretty crazy to kill Misty in order to protect Maya only to have Maya executed in order to protect himself! It could be argued that Godot was angry with Iris for her role in protecting Dahlia, but if he trusted her enough to enlist her help, he must have known that her goal is to protect her family. I guess maybe Godot thought that he needed to stay alive to protect Maya again if Morgan kept trying to kill her? Or maybe he thought Iris was going down anyway because of how Bikini saw Iris desecrate Misty's body?]]** [[spoiler: In retrospect, at no time did Godot ever say that Iris killed Elise/Misty. He never really pushes for a guilty verdict in court (though the game still gives you one if you run out of "health"). He spends a large portion of the time in court trying to force Phoenix to present better arguments about why Maya is innocent. He doesn't ever seem to want to say who did it or even attempt to suggest that Iris did. He still admitted that the plan called for Iris to "take the fall" if they couldn't keep track of Pearl, though.]]** Keep in mind that it's possible Godot knows [[spoiler:that Iris was, to some degree, involved in her sister's evil activities. If that's the case, it'd make sense that he wouldn't particularly mind if she took the fall for the crime. It would seem the sort of rationale he'd follow, that it'd be a fitting punishment for her letting Dahlia poison and murder people, and put him in a coma.]]** Given that Godot hated Dahlia so much that he was prepared to risk Misty's OR Pearl's life to take a stab on that long-dead person... Perhaps he has a subconscious dislike of Iris just because she looks exactly like Dahlia? As such, her life would be of the least concern to him, especially considering her own willingness to sacrifice herself in the name of Godot's self-righteousness. Although it does show that Godot, for all his championing of the "men must protect women" cause, apparently was fine with making an exception for a girl he didn't particularly care about to protect his own hide. However, one must not forget that the main part of the case against Iris was carried out by Franziska von Karma, - ironically, Godot was mostly prosecuting against the very same Maya he was trying to save.** It's worse than irony. [[spoiler:Godot was willing to frame Iris in order to protect Maya. And then "Iris" claims that Maya did it... and he agrees with that assertion?]] At that point, the only rational explanation for his actions in court is "he'd do anything to defeat Trite". Interesting how both prosecutors in that case are motivated primarily by their personal rivalry with the defense.* Why didn't Elise or Iris [[spoiler: tell Phoenix, Maya, Pearl, or Bikini about the plot to kill Maya?]]** They probably thought that they could stop it on their own and it wasn't very clever to worry anyone for nothing. [[spoiler: Plus, Elise could be worried about revealing her identity to Phoenix or Maya.]]** Plus, the plan on the whole is being masterminded by [[spoiler: Godot, who for his own personal reasons would have insisted Phoenix and, by proxy, Maya, who'll just blab it all out to him, be kept out of the loop. Presumably, Iris and Elise trusted him, and therefore believed him to have a better justification for this then he ultimately turned out to.]]** I'll explain my reasoning for each character:*** Bikini: Misty DID tell her actually. Not in the details, but she did tell her that someone is trying to take down the main family line. That would be enough to get her to cooperate and if they decided that they need her for something, they'd just need to ask without going into details of Morgan's plan itself.*** Pearl: Why would they think that a child would listen to two random women over her own mother? Remember that neither Iris nor Misty knew Pearl prior to the plan, they didn't know if she was tricked of helping her willingly, or how was she convinced. Don't forget that Pearl trusted Morgan, they had no reason to believe that she'd believe them.*** Phoenix: Misty didn't know anything about him except for being Maya's friend. Iris knew him better, but still, neither had any reason to think that he believes in channelling, for all they knew he was there just to humor his friend. Like Iris said when talking with Edgeworth most people don't believe in spiritual powers, and without knowing how does chanelling work explaining things to him would be pointless. Additionally until they came to Hazakura they had no way of contacting him. When they were there "Elise" was already Pearl's BFF, so they had every reason to believe that situation is under control.*** Another Troper re: Phoenix: Did you see what he did when he found out that Maya was in danger? Had the plan been revealed to Phoenix, there were fair odds that he'd turn the party home ''that very instant''. Whatever Godot's motives were, Trite would have thrown a SpannerInTheWorks that Godot didn't want to account for.*** Maya: I wouldn't be sure that they didn't tell her actually. When Mia was chanelled for advice she told her what to do before Pearl channels Dahlia, but in order to knew that she'd have to know about Morgan's plot. Maya herself had to know about Dahlia to channel her and it was too dark to see anything, she didn't see who attacked her. Given how Maya's actions after the attack were specifically to counter Morgan's plot i suspect that Iris DID in fact tell her, probably some time between dinner and her talk with Phoenix.* The Shichishito was bent in case 2, so why wasn't it bent later? Did some kind of metal smith fix it?** Getting a single kink out of a (relatively) straight metal rod is easier than you might think, especially if they took it to an expert. Considering that about four months pass between Cases 3-2 and 3-5, it doesn't really seem all that surprising that they managed to repair the damage completely.** IIRC, if you present the bent Shichishito to Adrian in 3-2 she offers to fix it, in considerable distress.* Iris repeatedly states that she's lived at Hazakura temple for as long as she remembers. However, [[spoiler: Dahlia implies that their father didn't leave Kurain until after DL-6. He certainly didn't, by her story, leave until after Misty became Master, which is said to be three years before DL-6. Iris would have been 8 when DL-6 happened.]] How could Iris not remember anything prior to age 8?** The most probable explanation? She's lying. After all, given everything we can guess about her father and all we ''know'' about her mother, it's likely that Iris simply doesn't '''want''' to remember [[spoiler: life before Hazakura]].*** Iris says that she's always been at Hazakura during conversations in which it is logical to think that the other conversant is using the Magatama. The Magatama must be in [[spoiler: "Luke Atmey saying that Mask [=DeMasque=] hit him over the head counts as an unlock"]] mode every time she says that... or else she doesn't consider that statement to be concealing a secret.*** That's what I would argue, both in this situation and in [[spoiler: Atmey's]]. The Magatama doesn't detect falsehoods so much as it detects the deliberate act of ''concealment''; if a person doesn't consider themselves to be lying (either because they interpret Phoenix's wording differently then he does, i.e. [[spoiler: Engarde]], they are concealing a second falsehood behind the first ''as if'' it was the truth, i.e. [[spoiler: Atmey]], or they are applying something akin to {{Doublethink}} and may to some degree ''believe'' their own story, i.e. Iris), then the Magatama won't pick up on it.** Also, Iris is, what, 25 now? She's still lived at Hazakura Temple for about 17 years, well over half her life. While that doesn't ''fully'' explain it, the Magatama may have just accepted that as close enough to work.*** [[spoiler:Though one would have to assume that there were certain gaps in that stretch, seeing as how she impersonated her sister for a prolonged period of time.]]** Iris never said that she doesn't remember her life prior to Hazakura. She said she doesn't remember ''when'' did she first came to Hazakura. whcih considering that it happened when she was 8 it's not really a stretch. She remembers that she's been at Hazakura since she was a child, but can't pinpoint the time.* Speaking of Iris and the Magatama, Edgeworth breaks her "psycholock" on the first day to figure out why she never went to the temple by figuring out that she was scared to go because of Larry's "blackmail letter". Indeed, Larry repeatedly testifies during the first trial day that before the incident, he spent the night waiting for Iris, but she never showed. But then on the second day, [[spoiler:we learn that Iris was in on the entire plan and not only had a valid reason to not go to the Inner Temple, but did in fact head to Dusky Bridge to move a dead body during the time that Larry was waiting for her. We can accept that Larry both took some time to get to the bridge and was more interested in drawing the flying body than noticing a nearby Iris (even though he thought the body was Iris), but what about the Magatama?]]** Iris was telling the truth. She stayed in her room [[ExactWords until the murder happened]]. But the murder happened about half an hour earlier than everyone thought it did. We don't know what was exactly the plan or what Godot told her it was. We don't know if she was supposed to go there according to plan. Considering that some creppy stalker apparently knew about her and Phoenix and was threatening to break his heart it's no wonder that Iris wasn't exacly fond of the idea of going there until the murder happened and she ''had'' to go.* What exactly was Iris's role in the [[spoiler: Dusky Bridge fake kidnapping]] supposed to be? Supposedly she [[spoiler: got scared and ran away, and supposedly this "betrayal" led to problems for Dahlia]]. What exactly was she expected to do?** Most likely, to provide some sort of escape route. If she had done her part, presumably [[spoiler: Dahlia would not have had to jump in the river and risk her life (and the diamond) to get out of there alive.]]** Or perhaps she was supposed to [[spoiler: pull a TwinSwitch with her, leaving Dahlia free to run off as somebody else with the gem]].* Case 3-5: Even considering light sources, it's surprising that someone attacking someone else with a weapon could [[spoiler:strike him in exactly one place, and have it be the one place that is covered with protective metal, in such a manner that he doesn't even need to adjust it to cover up the wound later]].** FridgeBrilliance: Because it was dark Dahlia could only see the visor, so that's where she struck.* It's related to an above entry about DL-6, but why doesn't Phoenix Wright point out that [[spoiler:Gregory Edgeworth didn't see his actual murderer]] when Edgeworth claims Misty was a fraud? Phoenix already proved that [[spoiler:Gregory was unconscious at the time of his death]]. It could very well have disproven the basis of Edgeworth's disbelief in spirit channeling, and proven [[spoiler:that Dahlia was in fact connected to the case despite being dead]].** Maybe because they were in the middle of a completely different case and both were too busy to be discussing the past?*** From a {{Watsonian}} standpoint, I agree. From a ''Doylist'', standpoint, though, it would be the ''perfect'' time to bring that point up, if for no other reason that this was supposed to be the GrandFinale, and Grand Finales are the best place to clean up loose plot threads and resolving character arcs; in this case, [[AgentScully Edgeworth]] being a FlatEarthAtheist about Kurian Channeling.* Case 3-5 is one giant AssPull. The murder [[spoiler: of Maya]] could not have been planned. A) [[spoiler: Morgan was imprisoned for ''a year'' before this case happened]]. B) She also most likely had no contact to [[spoiler: Dahlia or Iris]], probably not even knowing that [[spoiler: Dahlia was even imprisoned]]. And C) [[spoiler: Dahlia said that the whole plan of using her death and having her spirit channeled was not conceived until ''one or two months prior'' to this case]]. So there's no way that thing could've been in the Kurain Village, let alone with the proper instructions in it.** Even if Morgan had no direct contact with [[spoiler: Dahlia and Iris]], it's always possible that she learned of [[spoiler:Dahlia's imprisonment]] through the news. Since [[spoiler:Dahlia]] has been involved in so many crimes by now, all of which take place prior to 2-2, it's possible (though a bit of a stretch, yes) that Morgan just ''assumed'' she would cooperate, since obviously [[spoiler:Dahlia has no problem committing other crimes. Also, Morgan may have thought that, although she doesn't give a crap about her kids, Dahlia might still be willing to help out her mom]]. Also, maybe Dahlia just meant that [[spoiler:Morgan only told her about the plan then, but already had come up with it earlier]].** I don't remember things exactly at the moment, but isn't it mentioned that Morgan hid the letter to Pearl in the Fey Manor before she was arrested? Which would mean she came up with the plan around the end of 2-2 (which would mean that her threats at the end of that case weren't just vague threats, and that she already had the backup plan to set in motion). ** Actually, B) is dealt with directly [[spoiler:when Dahlia testifies in 3-5: she says it was easy for her and Morgan to talk to each other because they were held in the same detention center, Morgan was her mother, and Dahlia was on death row. The implication was that the prison staff let them spend time together out of deference to the fact that they would be permanently separated soon]].* Why couldn't [[spoiler:Misty Fey]], ''the master of the Kurain Channeling Technique, [[spoiler: exorcise or control Dahlia's spirit and stop her from killing Maya? Presumably she has more control over the spirit's actions then, say, Maya and Pearl would. Not to mention she wouldn't have died. Okay, I understand why she wouldn't be able to exorcise her, because then Pearl would have probably channeled her, but still...]]** [[spoiler: First, because it has not been established that such a thing is possible, even by the master of the Kurain Channeling Technique. Conversely, it's been repeatedly established that when a person channels a spirit, they disappear and the spirit completely takes over. Misty would not have been conscious when Dahlia was in her body, and consciousness is a requirement for just about anything a person could do to defend themselves from anything. Secondly, even if Misty did somehow have the ability to banish Dahlia from her body, as you pointed out, Pearl would have just been possessed instead; then either Pearl would murder Maya, or Maya (or Godot) would be forced to kill Pearl. As a loving mother, neither of these outcomes would be acceptable to Misty.]]*** It's still stated or at least highly implied that [[spoiler:skilled mediums have at least some degree of control over spirits they channel. Yes, outright exorcising Dahlia out of Misty would have been a bad idea due to the risk for Pearl... However, perhaps OP meant why couldn't the Kurain Master at least have enough control to prevent her from attacking Maya? Though this is one of the most inconsistent rules of the Kurain chanelling technique, so I can see how the writers perhaps just forgot about it...]]*** Stated and implied is one thing, but it's never ''shown''. This is one of those situations of "Dialogue is not gospel". When the characters say x, but what we see with our own eyes is y, then we must assume that y is the truth, and that the characters saying x are wrong. We have never actually witnessed [[spoiler: a spirit channeling that was anything other than the standard "medium disappears, spirit takes over completely" channeling that Maya and Pearl do with Mia all the time. Even Misty, who SHOULD have been able to override her possessing spirit if anyone is capable of doing so.]] Until we see evidence to the contrary, the only remaining assumption is that [[spoiler: the Kurain Channelers' claims of being able to control their channels]] is nothing more than empty boasting.** Or maybe [[spoiler:Dahlia's ghost]] was just ''that'' strongly driven by sheer hatred that [[spoiler:she managed to resist Misty's attempts]]. ** Aside from being named the Master, do we have any reason to believe Misty even that good at channeling? The title is passed by blood, not skill level. Since her daughters aren't that powerful, maybe we can assume she wasn't either. That's also one more reason for Morgan to be upset she got the title.*** Except it was ''Morgan'' who was the elder claimant that turned out to be a MuggleBornOfMages; Misty wouldn't have gotten the title unless Morgan had failed to show proficiency. Had Misty ''also'' failed, the House would have transferred to a cousin of Morgan & Misty's.** Also, it's been established that mediums' powers become weaker if they don't undergo spiritual training. Since Misty left Kurain Village 17 years ago, her powers could simply be rusty.* If I remember [[spoiler: Dahlia's]] testimony correctly in case 3-5, [[spoiler: she claimed that, after she was stabbed by Maya, she was the one who used her own blood to scribble "MAYA" on the stone lantern, which she was currently backed up against]]. Despite the fact that this was a lie in one aspect, there is physical evidence to support that [[spoiler: Dahlia wrote "MAYA" on the stone lantern]]. HOWEVER, what really happened was that [[spoiler: it was MAYA whose back was up against the stone lantern, and Dahlia was facing up against Maya when she was stabbed in the back by Godot. Not only was Maya not stabbed at all, but even if she HAD been, why would she write her own name on the lantern?]] While both these events are backed up by evidence to have actually happened, the two events contradict each other!** Ooh, nice one. We also can't justify it as going back later, as [[spoiler:the writing was there before Dahlia got free two days later]].*** Yeah, that's a good contradiction. After all, [[spoiler: Dahlia had a sword sticking out of her back, so it wasn't like she could put her back against the lantern. Plus, Maya was already against the lantern, so it was extremely difficult for Dahlia to have written it]].** Maya did pass out, so it's likely that she [[spoiler:fell away from the lantern when she collapsed. So that would explain why the section the message was written on wasn't blocked by Maya]]. As for the contradiction in [[spoiler:where they stood, it's possible Dahlia remembered it wrong. She herself admitted that her memory of around that time wasn't clear, and she was being forced away as the body she was in was dying from blood loss.]] Not entire sure how to explain [[spoiler:the message being upside-down, though.]]*** Given that Maya passed out, it's not too much of a stretch to go on and assume that [[spoiler: Dahlia stumbled away from Godot and ended up by the lantern as Maya was falling down]]. A bit contrived, yes, but not totally implausible.** This is easy to explain; here's the sequence of events: 1) Dahlia is facing Maya, who is backed against the lantern. 2) Dahlia gets stabbed from behind by Godot. 3) Dahlia ''turns around'' to slice Godot's face with her knife. She is now facing Godot, so her back is to Maya and the stone lantern. 4) Maya passes out and falls to the ground. 5) Dahlia stumbles ''backwards'' against the stone lantern. Dahlia is now leaning with her back (or rather, the top of Misty's staff) to the lantern. 6) With her left hand flat against the stone slab, her fingers pointing down and her palm against the stone, she writes Maya's name. It's upside down because moving her fingers "up", away from her palm moves them downwards.* [[spoiler:Okay, fine. Godot and Misty and Iris were determined to not let anyone know about the plot to kill Maya. But why didn't Misty just lock herself in a room and ''then'' channel Dahlia? Regardless of what Godot told her, I can't imagine that it could have come off as a better plan than "lock my body up where it cannot be used to harm my daughter". As soon as Godot told Misty about the plan, Misty could have just found somewhere ''on the other side of the country'' to lock herself away and then channel Dahlia. Hell, if she wanted to make it as simple as possible, she could have just had Godot or Iris tie her to a post before channelling. There, problem solved. Dahlia can't hurt Maya ''or'' Misty and Pearl can't channel her lunatic half-sister. I get that Godot want to ''save'' Maya, but Misty only cared about ''protecting'' her daughter. So why didn't she do the one thing that would have guaranteed Maya's safety? Even if you assume that her entire plan was to distract Pearl and that was derailed by Pearl not showing up to read with her, it's not like it would have been hard to find some rope and say "Hey, Iris, plan's gone to shit, so be a dear and tie me to this tree."]] Honestly, the actions of most of the people involved in that truth of that case make zero sense to me.** [[spoiler:Misty channeled Dahlia as a last-ditch plan. She was out looking for Pearl (since obviously keeping Dahlia from being channeled at all would be best) and, when it became apparent that time was running out and Pearl couldn't be found and stopped, she resorted to doing the channeling herself. As for why she didn't ask Iris to tie her up, Iris was elsewhere, doing jobs for the temple. Most likely Misty was out in the woods with no one else around when she had to get to it. As for why she didn't think to just do it ahead of time, well, no one knows precisely how much Godot told the women. He could have somehow pitched it to them in a way that made it sound like their plan was the best to go with.]]* The mistery of Case 3-5 is finally solved when Phoenix proves [[spoiler:Godot was wounded by Dahlia's dagger and he hid his wound behind his mask]]. But how did that happen? [[spoiler:Dahlia was focused on killing Maya so she may have never noticed Godot, her testimony implies that 'she' was stabbed and that's it, no mention of a struggle at all, and Godot is 30cm taller according to the game manual (Dahlia and Maya are at about the same height) so leaving a wound in his face without doing so deliberately does not seem likely]].** Because [[spoiler:she did mean to do it. It's stated clearly in the case that Dahlia had already had the sword stabbed into her by the time she turned around the sliced Godot across the face. She was just stabbed from behind, so she turned around and attacked back at her killer. Makes perfect sense to me.]]* Why do so many people think that [[spoiler: Godot died]]? Sure, he was stabbed in the face, but I am pretty sure he would have been taken to the hospital for that. He also would not get the death penalty. While he did [[spoiler: kill Misty]], that was mostly Dahlia's fault. It was done partly in defense of another. At most, he would be charged with reckless endangerment and withholding information from the police. A few years in prison, not a death sentence. As for the poison, he drank that five years ago. It lost it's effects a long time ago and would not be affecting his health anymore.** Obviously the poison did some real damage to him. His [[spoiler: eyesight is proof enough that it got to his brain]] and people don't exactly go into a coma for 5 years and start tap-dancing once they wake up. At the end of the final court-day he'd also spent 2 days in near-Arctic conditions without proper shelter and probably missing some medical treatment for the aforementioned coma. The sketch shown at the end of the case also shows him next to Mia and [[spoiler: Elise/Misty]] instead of in the second sketch with Phoenix, Maya, Pearl, Gumshoe, Edgeworth, and Franziska. It's never stated outright and you can handwave all this if you want, but the implication is he died of medical complications shortly after the last trial.** Also, as someone way above me on this page liked to point out, there's no such thing as premeditated defense of another. What he did falls somewhere between murder in the second degree or voluntary manslaughter, so he'd probably get a death sentence anyway.*** The death sentence is only given for first degree murder.*** In the real world, yeah. But ''Ace Attorney'''s universe tends to be necessarily harsh, and in a world where the criminal justice system is so overwhelmed they don't allow court cases to exceed three days, I'm more than willing to believe they're handing out the death sentence a little easier than we do.*** Still, Frank Sawhit did not get the death penalty, and Godot was more sympathetic than him, so I doubt he would have gotten it either.* After replaying Case 3-5, something caught my attention and make me think... [[spoiler: when did Morgan Fey write the letter asking Pearl to channel Dahlia?]]. It could me misremembering Case 2-2, but [[spoiler: Morgan's involvement with Dr. Grey's murder and trying to pin it on Maya was revealed in the very last day of the trial, giving her practically no time to think of the plan, write it on the letter and leave it on Fey Manor before being arrested]]. Supposing [[spoiler: Morgan [[CrazyPrepared had actually written the letter long before being suspected of being an accomplice]], this plan would still rely on the coincidence that Morgan were sent to the same detention center Dahlia was in, and telling her of her plan of killing Maya (Which, if Case 3-4 is of any indication, Dahlia did not recognize Mia, then much less Maya) for it to even have a chance of succeeding (As otherwise there would be a very puzzled Dahlia wondering why was she summoned)]]. I frankly cannot see how it was supposed to work.** It's possible, though rather difficult. When Morgan Fey left the stand in 2-2, she could have suspected that her carefully devised plan was being unraveled. And until the end of that trial, nobody would have had reason to arrest her. Most importantly of all, Kurain Village is actually quite far away. So Morgan would have had at least a few hours to devise the plan, draft a latter, and hide it in the mansion. She could work out the details with [[spoiler:Dahlia]] later.** It was my understanding that Pearl still visited her mother in prison, and the letter was given to her during one such visit not long before the Hazakura Temple trip.* Why didn't 3-5's revenge plan directly target Phoenix? [[spoiler:While striking at Maya would have given Dahlia revenge against Mia, wouldn't killing Phoenix serve an equal purpose as well as target someone that she hated on a personal level? Morgan would also have a personal vendetta, as Phoenix was the one who revealed her connection to her previous attempt on Maya's reputation. And most importantly... haven't these people figured out that killing Phoenix is the key to actually getting away with any murders they commit, since nobody else on the case ever figures it out... except Mia, who was already dead? Just make it look like Maya did it and they're both out of your hair. (Also, as an unexpected bonus, Godot would never come up with a plan to protect him, and Iris would have probably chosen to not visit him again to save him the heartbreak.)]]** That would have been a more effective alternative. Though I think you forgot that [[spoiler:Richard Wellington was close to killing Phoenix. Granted all he did was hit Wright over the head with a fire extinguisher and gave him amnesia, but he did have the right idea]].** Because it was [[spoiler: Morgan who hatched the plan, not Dahlia. Morgan wasn't interested in revenge, by proxy or otherwise, but in securing Pearl's position as master. Killing Phoenix wouldn't help her in that. And I doubt Morgan or Dahlia were interested in getting away with anything since they were already both in prison.]]*** But Morgan could have killed two birds with one stone if she had Phoenix killed and had Maya take the fall. If that happened, almost nobody would be able to save Maya at that point, since the most competent people would either be dead or prosecutors, thus unable to defend her.*** And how would she pull this off? Morgan didn't even know Phoenix would be there at Hazakura, and she had one shot, I doubt Pearl would ever call Dahlia again if she killed someone. Frameups are by their nature much more complicated than simple murders, she couldn't order Dahlia to kill Phoenix and frame Maya and expect reasonable chance of success. And her plan was made on short notice just before she was sent to prison, she didn't have time or resources to hatch anything more complicated than "call Dahlia in Hazakura, tell her to kill Maya, everyone will think it was Iris, so you'll be safe".*** Well, maybe because framing Maya had already failed once...? Remember, she tried to frame her before and failed. She's no idea that Nick is an extraordinary attorney. For all she knows, all attorneys are as good as Phoenix and Mia. The quickest and simplest thing? Kill Maya.* Did Pearl just... forget that Franziska is the reason 2-4 turned out so well? She clearly knows, because she's not rude to Franziska at the end of the episode in question. When she sees Franziska in 3-5, Pearl reams her for her prior behaviour in 2-2... but she knows that were it not for Franziska, Engarde would have gotten away and/or Maya would be dead. It could just be distress, but considering she ran into Fran when she was working WITH Phoenix? It seems odd as anything except to show Franziska's a lot more human than the fans think of her.** It's stress, most likely. Remember, Pearl's a 9-year-old kid who just spent a day trapped in a place she's never been to before, which probably isn't terribly safe, either. She's also been worried about Maya the whole time. Under the circumstances, it makes sense for her to snap at Franziska; if Pearl had run into her at any other time, she'd probably be more polite to her for the reasons you stated.** The only time Franz actually helped during Engarde case was when she brought the 3 pieces of evidence at the end. Pearl couldn't remember that particuar moment because she was chanelling Mia at the time.* What would be Godot charged for after what he did in 3-5? Murder or Manslaughter? Since in a way he struck at Dahlia, but it was Misty who ended up killed by that strike.** Probably murder. True, this situation has never happened in real life, but he struck Misty knowing full well he was killing Misty in the process of killing Dahlia (and, as several others have pointed out, his entire attack was premeditated) so you can't call it an accident. I doubt you could make a case for manslaughter.[[/folder]]

Reason: Sorting the Headscratchers from Games 2 and 3 by case. I may go back and resort the ones in the general and the last folder by topic, in part to obviate the need for spoiler tags...

*** '''HOLD IT!''' I believe, good citizen, that you have just uncovered a VoodooShark: While Prosecutors may not give Gumshoe's annual salary over motive, Udgey, at the least, should make them offer up a ''reasonable'' explanation.

*** I think there is a legal need to prosecute all related crimes the state wants to charge somebody for at the same time. Not sure if this extendeds to serial theft though, but "charging him for all of it in one trial" is a valid, logical explantion.

to:

*** I think there is a legal need to prosecute all related crimes the state wants to charge somebody for at the same time. Not sure if this extendeds to serial theft though, but "charging him for all of it in one trial" is a valid, logical explantion.explanation.** So is there no concept of Severability in the Legal System? i.e. Acquittal of 1 charge should not ''ipso facto'' invalidate the other 4 charges. If not, that makes the "justice" system theoretically breakable by any run of the mill defense attorney, and not just be a prodigy like Mr. Wright, Esq.: just find a way to tack on one more case with a similar ''modus operandi'', acquit your client of ''that'' case, and bang, scot-free! Conversely, you get a glut of cases that become "Unsolved".

*** Phoenix: Misty didn't know anything about him except for being Maya's friend. Iris knew him better, but still, neither had any reason to think that he believes in channelling, for all they knew he was there just to humor his friend. Like Iris said when talking with Edgeworth most people don't believe in spiritual powers, and without knowing how does chanelling work explaining things to him would be pointless. Additionally untill they came to Hazakura they had no way of contacting him. When they were there "Elise" was already Pearl's BFF, so they had every reason to believe that situation is under control.

to:

*** Phoenix: Misty didn't know anything about him except for being Maya's friend. Iris knew him better, but still, neither had any reason to think that he believes in channelling, for all they knew he was there just to humor his friend. Like Iris said when talking with Edgeworth most people don't believe in spiritual powers, and without knowing how does chanelling work explaining things to him would be pointless. Additionally untill until they came to Hazakura they had no way of contacting him. When they were there "Elise" was already Pearl's BFF, so they had every reason to believe that situation is under control.control.*** Another Troper re: Phoenix: Did you see what he did when he found out that Maya was in danger? Had the plan been revealed to Phoenix, there were fair odds that he'd turn the party home ''that very instant''. Whatever Godot's motives were, Trite would have thrown a SpannerInTheWorks that Godot didn't want to account for.

* Case 3-5 is one giant AssPull. The murder [[spoiler: of Maya]] could not have been planned. A) [[spoiler: Morgan was imprionsed for ''a year'' before this case happened]]. B) She also most likely had no contact to [[spoiler: Dahlia or Iris]], probably not even knowing that [[spoiler: Dahlia was even imprisoned]]. And C) [[spoiler: Dahlia said that the whole plan of using her death and having her spirit channeled was not conceived until ''one or two months prior'' to this case]]. So there's no way that thing could've been in the Kurain Village, let alone with the proper instructions in it.

to:

*** From a {{Watsonian}} standpoint, I agree. From a ''Doylist'', standpoint, though, it would be the ''perfect'' time to bring that point up, if for no other reason that this was supposed to be the GrandFinale, and Grand Finales are the best place to clean up loose plot threads and resolving character arcs; in this case, [[AgentScully Edgeworth]] being a FlatEarthAtheist about Kurian Channeling.* Case 3-5 is one giant AssPull. The murder [[spoiler: of Maya]] could not have been planned. A) [[spoiler: Morgan was imprionsed imprisoned for ''a year'' before this case happened]]. B) She also most likely had no contact to [[spoiler: Dahlia or Iris]], probably not even knowing that [[spoiler: Dahlia was even imprisoned]]. And C) [[spoiler: Dahlia said that the whole plan of using her death and having her spirit channeled was not conceived until ''one or two months prior'' to this case]]. So there's no way that thing could've been in the Kurain Village, let alone with the proper instructions in it.

*** Except it was ''Morgan'' who was the elder claimant that turned out to be a MuggleBornOfMages; Misty wouldn't have gotten the title unless Morgan had failed to show proficiency. Had Misty ''also'' failed, the House would have transferred to a cousin of Morgan & Misty's.

** Because being [[spoiler: convicted of being Mask☆[=DeMasque=]]] was his back-up plan, to be activated in case the primary plan, [[spoiler: framing Ron [=DeLite=] for Bullard's muirder]], didn't work out. Also, because being popular is something Atmey likes, and it could be worth it being convicted of being a popular jewel thief. Doubly so if it means [[spoiler: being impossible to convict of being a murderer.]]

to:

** Because being [[spoiler: convicted of being Mask☆[=DeMasque=]]] was his back-up plan, to be activated in case the primary plan, [[spoiler: framing Ron [=DeLite=] for Bullard's muirder]], murder]], didn't work out. Also, because being popular is something Atmey likes, and it could be worth it being convicted of being a popular jewel thief. Doubly so if it means [[spoiler: being impossible to convict of being a murderer.]]]]*** Well, with so many valuable items, he would still be risking a LongerThanLifeSentence for those thefts, which, to the OP's point, [[PyrrhicVictory kind of defeats the whole purpose of the "backup plan"]]; all he'd dodge is the Chair. And once he got a taste of prison life, he would probably have rather had the Chair...

*** On that point: by the end of the case, we find that [[spoiler:Morgan was later charged (and convicted) as a co-conspirator. She wanted Maya to take ''a'' fall, and Mimi merely provided a way to do it. If it could be proven that Maya has no control over her actions at the time of the murder, to the point that the Diet, or Udgey ''himself'', thought that Kurian Channeling was a DangerousForbiddenTechnique, they could declare it illegal. [[GoneHorriblyRight Morgan would then be the head of a defunct House]].]] Given that this would be the sort of angle that any other skilled Defense Attorney would pursue, one could ask said co-conspirator "WasItReallyWorthIt"

Added DiffLines:

*** [[spoiler:The DL-6 case showed that]] the InsanityDefense ''is'' a thing in the Ace Attorney world, despite TheOtherWiki [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insanity_defense#Scottish_law only citing a handful of Civil Law countries that recognize it]], and then not as a ''defense'' but rather as a ''mitigation''.[[note]]Though if this region is like Scandinavia, that mitigation would eventually let Maya go free but forbid her from doing any further channeling.[[/note]] My only question is why did Franziska not offer ''that'' angle? Was she presenting a FalseDichotomy that lesser attorneys would have fallen victim to?[[note]]If so, that probably suggests that even ''she'' felt that the I.D. had merit, and so excluded it from the list of her options.[[/note]]

*** The way I understand it, there's quite a bit of irony about Phoenix's and Miles' rivalry: both of them are in a profession directly opposite from their natural inclination. Note how in Investigations, every single time Miles gets roped into it to protect someone he cares about (and unlike Phoenix, who often struggles with Mia's teachings, he always trusts them implicitly without even asking them first). The only time Miles gets into nailing the correct suspect is the last case, and Lang was quite passionate in convincing him how important it was. Meanwhile, Phoenix pursues the real culprit with passion every single time. In 1-2 he switches places with Maya in the detention center and it barely has any influence on his motivation: at this point he doesn't care who the wrongly accused person is, he wants to get ''White''. Phoenix is naturally fiery and passionate about catching criminals; Miles is naturally protective and has strong feelings about protecting the innocent. It's their experiences that have led them to the opposite profession, and it matters, but their true colors still shine through.

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